


Mondegreen Melody

by TheDogzLife



Series: Squid Story [1]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: & takes place roughly a month after hero mode, Gen, also featuring a handful of ocs including the mc, the T rating is for blood / violence and also Pearl's potty mouth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-10-05 20:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 119,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17331650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDogzLife/pseuds/TheDogzLife
Summary: Jake lives a pretty average inkling life, and as far as he knows, his brother does too. As it turns out, he doesn’t know as much as he thought about Rollo – and only finds out when his brother, codename Agent 4, seems to have gone missing.A mix-up drags Jake into a mess he’s not prepared for. Fortunately, he has the Squid Sisters on his side, but things might be worse than any of them imagined…





	1. Agent 4.5

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this fic at around the beginning of May last year and got dragged into squid hell. However, I decided to wait until the story was almost completely done before posting it, and I only have like... 2 chapters left, so I think it's finally safe for me to upload, haha. I love these squids, I hope you like them too ???

“And don’t come back until you learn how to _do a_ _good_ _job_!”

Being thrown out of a company building by a wooden bear was not how Jake expected his day to start, but here he was now, face-down on the pavement outside of Grizzco Industries and wondering how exactly he’d been moved from the inside to here. The shutters slammed to the ground behind him with an almighty crash, shaking the earth.

 _I tried my best…_ Shrinking into his squid form, Jake flopped over onto his back, staring up at the overcast sky and the bright screens of Deca Tower where the Great Zapfish resided. At least here the heavens didn’t rain with the green gunk of drizzlers, and there were no missiles homing in on him from a rampant flyfish.

What was he supposed to do when someone shoved a slosher into his hands and told him to fight salmonids? All he could do was pour ink on the smallfry when they snapped at his feet.

_“There’s a jet squelcher in the shift’s weapons today, bro, go for it.”_

Maybe if he ever actually got to _use_ it he might have done better. The second he had his favourite weapon the place had filled with thick fog and the grinding of steelhead gears. He could barely even _see_ in the first place, forced to switch his black arrowband glasses for an ugly Grizzco cap – perhaps he should get contacts one of these days – and the fog definitely didn’t help.

He didn’t know how Rollo put up with that place, let alone managed to earn enough for them to live on from it. Sometimes it seemed like his brother could do anything he put his mind to.

 _He’s going to be so disappointed when he learns Mr. Grizz threw me out after just three shifts._ Snapping back into inkling form, Jake sat up hurriedly, staring down at the jacket he was wearing. It was his brother’s lucky one, and Rollo had lent it to him for the day for ‘good luck’ at Grizzco, even though he had to change out of it during the actual shifts. It was a white inky rider with a patched-up tear across the left shoulder, which Rollo always claimed happened in a Splat Zones match, but Jake had never heard of anyone’s gear getting _damaged_ in a match with all the equipment to keep them safe. Either way, the jacket hadn’t exactly given him luck this morning.

Sighing heavily, Jake climbed back to his feet, dusted off the grit that’d stuck to his clothes, re-adjusted his glasses, and checked the time on his arrow-shaped phone. Tower Control was on for the next few hours; maybe if he could manage to win some matches and not go home _completely_ empty-handed, he’d alleviate the shame a little.

His older brother was so cool and level-headed, sneaking around the battle with his fancy splat roller nobody knew where he’d obtained, and then Jake… got picked off by snipers a lot. Or blasters. Or sploosh-o-matics if he wasn’t paying enough attention to his nearby surroundings…

Delving his hands into his pockets, and only remembering this jacket wasn’t _actually_ his when he did find some spare change, Jake wondered if his brother would mind if he used some of it for a snack from Crusty Sean. He _had_ been working all morning – he may have overslept – and it was nearly lunchtime… Rollo had said they could get pizza when he was done, but his brother wasn’t here yet, and might not be for a while. He’d probably expected Jake to last longer in there.

“I’ll just… get the cheapest thing on the menu,” he shrugged to himself, pocketing the change once more and starting off on his journey towards the square where Sean’s truck stood.

He didn’t get very far. The large sewer drain burst open. Something grabbed him.

The next thing Jake knew he was falling, and his scream of surprise was only an echo in the tunnels.

Something dragged him out into the daylight, and he was falling to the ground once more. Jake lay there stunned, wondering where on earth he was. This definitely wasn’t a sewer anymore. It was far too bright, and far too clean-smelling.

Apparently being pushed around was a common occurrence today.

Less than a second passed, no time to catch his breath, before suddenly there was a huge weight on his back. Something shoved his head down against the earth, preventing him from transforming into a squid.

“Got you! There’s no escape now!”

“W-wait!” Jake flailed, trying to throw whoever this was off him – judging by the weight, probably an inkling, though they weren’t as heavy as his brother – but it was a fruitless effort. He was pinned. “Let me go!”

“Oh, don’t even dream about it, buster! You got _a lot_ of questions to answer!”

“I don’t—I d-don’t know what you’re talking about!” He tried desperately to lift his head, only managing to catch a glimpse of familiar colours – the colours of Rollo’s weapon. Was he here? Was his brother here!? As cold as he could be sometimes, he wouldn’t let this happen! Jake’s voice rose in a wail. “ _Rollo_ , _help_!”

“How do you know that name?” Another voice, a lot more serious-sounding than the first. “And where did you get that jacket?”

“I-I…” He managed to move his head at last – and wished he hadn’t, because he was staring straight at the barrel of a charger. A yellow and black charger.

This wasn’t a match. If he was shot here there was nothing to drag him back to a spawn point before a fatal injury.

The inkling threatening the weapon glared at him. The lower half of their face was covered by a white mask, but the piercing look in their eyes was enough alone to show they meant business. “ _Tell_ _me_!”

Jake only whimpered in fear. He didn’t know what to do.

He was going to die. He didn’t know what they wanted and they were going to shoot him and he was going to _die_ —

“Wait, Ma— err, Agent 2.” The force of the hand shoving Jake’s face against the dirt lessened a little. “He’s, uh—he’s crying.”

For a moment, that cold stare remained. Jake was too terrified to think about how uncool he probably looked, pinned to the ground and snivelling as his eyes and nose ran. Agent 2 let out a long sigh, moving the weapon away from his face – it wasn’t even charged. He felt like an idiot now.

“Fine.” Their voice was softer now, although there was still a threatening hint to their gaze. “What’s your name, kid? And where did you get that jacket?”

“I…” Jake sniffed. “M-my n-name is… Jake.”

“Aaaand?” insisted the inkling sitting on him.

His back was starting to hurt. “M-my brother—i-it’s my brother’s jacket. He let me borrow it this morning.”

The inkling he could see looked at the one pinning him, probably exchanging glances.

“Alright, you’re free from my unescapable super-move, the _calamari_ _squish_.” The weight vanished as the inkling jumped up, their voice holding a hint of joking unfitting to the situation.

Jake scrambled into a sitting position, too shaky to stand but not wanting this person to sit on him again. “Who are you? A-and what do you want?” And where was this place? His glasses were a little smeared, but it looked like they were on some kind of island… in a canyon?

“Should we tell him?” the paperweight inkling asked. While Agent 2 had a mask covering their face and their white hair mostly stuffed under a cap, this one was dressed more casually, with a pink beanie over their black hair.

And Jake, a young inkling with a quiet love for music, knew exactly who she was the moment he saw her.

“You’re – you are…” He pointed dumbly, jaw dropping. “C-Callie!? F-from the squid sisters!?”

“Well…” Callie gave a sheepish grin. “Oops?”

Agent 2 shot her a glare. “This is why you should’ve worn your shades.”

“I didn’t have time to go get them, okay?” Callie huffed. “I was just going to the mall at quiet hour, I didn’t expect _this_ mess!”

“And—and you’re…!” It didn’t take a genius to work out that if this was Callie, then Agent 2 must be Marie, but all Jake could do for a long moment was gawk. “I… I’m a big fan…!”

“Yeah, that’s… that’s great and all,” Marie sighed, disappointed that she’d been recognised. “But we have some serious business to… please, don’t start crying again.”

With a squeak of surprise, Jake hurriedly pushed up his glasses to rub his eyes. “S-sorry I’m just – uh – what’s going on?”

“Aw, come on, Marie, he’s just a little kid,” Callie soothed, patting his head. “Do we really want to involve him in this?”

“A-actually, I’m seventeen…”

Callie withdrew her hand quickly as if she’d been given a static shock. ”Really!?” Her incredulous gaze stayed on him for a long moment before she eventually shrugged. “Okay, you can take it. You’re a big boy.”

“What…?”

“Agent 4 sent us an emergency signal roughly half an hour ago,” Marie explained, her voice serious. “We haven’t been able to contact him since. We think he might have been kidnapped by the octarians.”

“ _Whoa_.” Jake didn’t even try to keep the childish amazement out of his expression. This was like… _spy stuff_. “Is Agent 4 someone important? Why do the octarians want him? Do they do creepy experiments and stuff?”

“Yes, probably revenge, and for his sake I hope they don’t,” Marie answered his questions monotonously.

Callie, meanwhile, pressed her fingers together, biting her lip. “You really don’t know who Agent 4 is?”

Jake shook his head. Was that someone he should know? His brain was a little foggy, after getting beaten up by salmonids and then… well, essentially being kidnapped by the Squid Sisters. He felt like he’d still remember someone with a cool name like _Agent 4_ , though.

“The owner of that jacket,” Marie stated. She dropped her gaze as Jake’s expression turned to one of horror. “His real name is Rollo.”

 

* * *

 

[10:46] 8

[10:47] 8

[10:47] 8

[10:47] i

[10:47] 8

Her phone going haywire with notifications had been what woke Marie that morning. The first one she’d ignored, figuring it was just Callie trying to get her up before noon – fat chance, she didn’t have to be anywhere this morning and she’d stayed up reading until 4AM again, which was starting to become a bad habit. The repetitive sound forced her to put in the effort to check her phone, though, even if her plan had initially just been to try and wake her mind up enough to remember how to silence notifications.

It wasn’t Callie messaging her, though. It was Agent 4.

 _I really hope I’m still dreaming._ There could only be one reason he’d send a bunch of ‘8’s – and one ‘i’, which she wondered if was a secret message briefly before realising i was the letter which had to be held down to get an 8 on the phone keyboard. _Octarians._

[10:47] Agent 4, is everything okay?

There was no response. Her phone fell back into silence.

She could catch up on sleep later.

“Callie, we’ve got a problem.” She burst into the living room still in her pyjamas and sporting a bedhead, but there was nobody there to laugh at her ruffled appearance. She raised her voice in case her cousin was in another room. “Callie?”

No reply. That wasn’t too much of a surprise. Callie was an early bird, after all; she was probably out somewhere already. Come to think of it, Marie did have a vague memory that morning of Callie popping her head through the door of her room to say she was going out… where had she said she was going again?

_Octo Canyon. To check everything’s still where it should be._

_Oh no…_

The second the thought crossed her mind, Marie swiped her phone onto the call screen, tapping Callie’s icon.

_“This number is unavailable right now. Please leave a message or try again later.”_

“No, _no_ …” A million terrible thoughts rushed through her mind. She tried to block them out. It was time to act.

She threw on her Agent 2 clothes, tying her hair up before stuffing the bow under her cap. As soon as she’d met the bare minimum requirements of “suitable to go out into a public area”, she was racing across the city, and narrowly avoided running into multiple inklings as she blazed a path for the entrance to Octo Canyon.

Marie arrived slightly out of breath, and glanced around a few times to make sure no one was watching before sinking into a sloppy squid form to pass through the grate.

When she reformed on the platform above the canyon, the first place she looked was the southeast corner, where the globe imprisoning Octavio stood. Past tense. The glass lay shattered around the base, splashed with purple ink.

It was a painfully familiar sight. _Too_ familiar.

_No, no, no, this can’t be happening again, it can’t…_

_Callie!_

With one last desperate grasp for hope, she tried her phone once more. Marie held her breath when the dialling tone actually went through this time.

“Hey, Mar-laz-ie! You’re actually awake before noon!”

The sound of Callie’s cheery voice was such an immense relief that Marie felt for a moment like her legs might give way beneath her. _She’s okay. The octarians don’t have her._ “Callie, where are you?” No time for banter right now. In hindsight, she did feel a little guilty that all her worry had immediately gone towards whether her cousin had been kidnapped again or not. Agent 4 had been the one frantically messaging her earlier, and there was still no reply from him since.

Suddenly her fear was back. The octarians may not have Callie this time, but all signs pointed to them having kidnapped Agent 4.

“I’m like… just down the road from the mall. I just saw the missed call from you and I was about to call back, but you beat me to it! You know the signal in that building is cod-awful. Is something wrong?”

 _Of course. Of course she was in the mall. That’s like her second home._ Marie resisted the urge to slap a hand to her forehead. “I think that’s an understatement,” she groaned, looking at the mess around her. “I’m at the canyon. Octavio’s gone.”

“ _What_!?” Callie’s exclamation was so loud, Marie had to hold the phone away from her ear. There was a nervous laugh on the other end of the line, as if Callie had accidentally attracted the attention of the people around her. _Hopefully she’s relatively unrecognisable._ A moment later, she spoke again, her voice hushed so people wouldn’t overhear. “Are you kidding me!? I only left half an hour ago!”

 _Thank goodness you left._ Although, given how long it had been since Agent 4’s disappearance, perhaps whoever had freed Octavio had been waiting for the place to be unguarded. Suddenly aware of how potentially dangerous this place might be, if any of the octarians were still here and watching, Marie made her way towards the old shack. She needed a weapon in case she had to defend herself. “That’s not all. Agent 4 sent me a bunch of messages this morning, and they all just had the number eight. He hasn’t responded since. I have a terrible feeling he was ambushed by the octarians and trying to call for help.”

“You think… you think they kidnapped him?” A new hint of distress made its way into Callie’s voice. She knew exactly what that was like; she wouldn’t wish it on anyone, let alone a friend. “But I—I just saw him this morning… oh, Marie, this is _awful_! What do you think they want with Rollo!?”

Hearing his real name threw her for a second. Marie always called him by his agent name – it was more of a nickname than anything by now. “I don’t know, but… we have to do something. I just don’t know what yet.” Her gaze travelled around the room; it was an absolute mess in here, and she knew her charger was buried somewhere in it. This was what she got for leaving the place mostly under Callie’s supervision. At least there were still a handful of weapons within reaching distance. “We go look for him, I guess? You saw him last, did you know where he was going?”

“I think he was planning on meeting someone and then going home? I don’t remember exactly, but— _oh_!”

The line fell silent. Marie frowned, her hand hovering over the black-and-yellow charger Sheldon had left with them. “Callie?”

“Hold on,” her voice was barely audible. There was a muffled sound, as if she’d pocketed her phone, and when she spoke again her voice had a slight echo. “I’m back at the entrance, just below the grate. I can see someone, Marie! They’ve got Rollo’s jacket!”

“What?” Marie lifted the weapon from its careless resting place. Hopefully nobody attacked her while she was on the phone, since she’d need both hands to use a charger. “Who? How!?”

“I don’t know! An inkling, as far as I can tell.”

“You sure it’s his? He isn’t the only one with a white inky rider. They’ve been around a while.”

“It’s _definitely_ his! It’s got the stitches in the shoulder and one of the pins is missing. If it’s not, this is the biggest coincidence in the entire world!” Callie hissed. “Oh, they’re heading this way! Should I grab ‘em?”

Maybe it was too much to hope for an easy clue like this. Perhaps this was nothing. But Callie was right; what were the chances of another inkling having the same jacket with the exact same tear? “Yeah. Bring them here. They have some explaining to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A recurring theme of this story will probably be that if you listen closely you can hear me crying as I try to apply splatoon logic to an actual story. After overthinking things too much I ended up with what is essentially "inklings (and to an extent octolings) are basically just boneless humans who can shapeshift if they're not restricted by anything". Will everything make logical scientific sense? Probably not, but, we can only try.
> 
> Also, just as a note: there are a lot of Strong Sibling Bonds (or. sibling-like) in this story, Please do not leave any comments shipping incest or whatnot because that seems to be a... scarily common thing in this fandom & I do not want this on my lawn. Thanks.
> 
> This story will update on Mondays & Thursdays! Usually in the afternoon (GMT)


	2. Making an Impression

This had to be some kind of dream.

He’d accidentally left music playing when he fell asleep, or something, and now he was dreaming about the Squid Sisters. They were… agents, for some reason, and apparently Rollo was too.

Rollo hadn’t really been kidnapped by octarians. That was stupid!

Everything felt too _real_ for it to be a dream, though. He could feel himself shaking. His cheek felt scratched from when he’d been shoved against the ground. The breeze whistling over the rocks chilled his skin and ruffled his clothes.

It _was_ real.

Maybe there had been some kind of mistake.

_But they know him. They know his name. They knew this is his jacket!_

Jake resisted the urge to just curl in on himself, or revert into a squid and try to sneak away even though he was being watched, ending up just folding his arms and grabbing a fistful of the jacket’s sleeve in one hand. “I-I don’t… are… are you sure he’s gone?” He looked up at Marie, trying to find any trace of hope in her half-covered face.

She avoided his gaze, and shrugged. “No, but that’s looking like the most likely scenario. He hasn’t replied since sending a bunch of vague messages this morning.”

“Oh, oh!” Callie burst out, jumping on the spot as if she’d been hit by a surge of inspiration. She pointed at Jake. “Do you have a phone on you? Call him! He might answer you!”

“Ah – right!” Trying to remember where he’d put it, Jake eventually found his phone in the pocket of his shorts. _I didn’t bring my hoodie today; that’s why it’s here._ As he stood up at last, he tapped Rollo’s speed-dial option. Thankfully there was a signal out here, somehow. It took his phone a moment to process the action.

“ _This number is unavailable. Please leave a message or try again later.”_

Jake pocketed his phone again quickly, trying to hide how much his hands were shaking. _He never turns his phone off. He charges it every day. Why isn’t he answering!? They can’t be_ right _…!_

“Aw, man,” Callie sighed, overhearing the generic message. She looked to her cousin. “What now?”

Marie pulled her mask down and took a deep breath. She was silent for a moment. “We check the domes, I guess. It’s our best shot of finding anything.”

_The domes?_ What did that even mean?

“Okay,” Callie nodded. Her gaze briefly went to Jake. “What do we do about…?”

Jake swallowed, taking a small step back at suddenly being made the subject.

Marie looked at him for a moment, her expression vaguely sympathetic. “You’re free to go, kid, but don’t tell anyone about this place. Or us. Or anything about the octarians, or your brother’s involvement with them.”

_That’s it?_ She was sending him away just like that? “W-wait, I can help!” The outburst came before he’d thought too much into it, but Jake knew he wouldn’t be able to just sit around at home when his brother had been _captured_. “I want to help save him!”

“Yeah! That’s the spirit!” Callie cheered.

Marie just looked surprised. Probably because that was a large turn-around from the crybaby she’d just been introduced to. “It’s dangerous out here—”

“ _You_ dragged Rollo out here into this place,” Callie reminded her, nudging her arm. “C’mon, safety in numbers! You do many turf wars, squiddo?”

_Oh!_ She was talking to him. “Yeah! And – and I’m an S-rank in Tower Control,” Jake nodded enthusiastically, proud of his rank even if it was peanuts compared to his brother in Rank X.

Marie didn’t look particularly impressed – why would she? She knew Rollo – but even so, she shrugged. “Well, you’re probably not awful, at least. Just don’t treat this place like a match and you’ll be fine. What kind of weapon are you used to using?”

“The—”

“ _Wait_!” Callie interrupted him before he could say. “Wait, wait, I wanna guess! I’m pretty good at guessing these things, y’know!”

“Callie.” Marie was ignored.

“Alright, let’s see.” She hopped over to stand in front of him, her gaze intense. Jake resisted the urge to back away. Callie was about average height, but he was not, at only five feet, so it still felt like she was towering over him.

“… Aaand here we go,” Marie sighed, lightly smacking a hand to her face and shaking her head.

“ _Hmm_ …” Callie jumped back a moment later, sending her long hair swinging. “I got it! Rapid blaster.”

“Uh…” Jake blinked at her in slight stupor, not really knowing how she’d determined this. “Jet squelcher, actually.”

“Darn. I was close, though!” Callie nodded, clapping her hands together.

“How are those two weapons even _remotely_ close, Callie?” Marie scoffed, her serious attitude having melted away for the moment.

“They’re _technically_ both shooters!”

“Sure, whatever you say.” Marie rolled her eyes. “ _Anyway_. You’re used to long range. Any experience handling a charger?”

“Aw, trying to find an apprentice, Marie?”

“Ignore Callie. I do.”

“ _Hey_!”

“No… but it’s kinda similar, right?” Jake said hopefully. In reality, he’d only tried using a charger once before; one of the inklings on the same league team as Rollo, Ada, had let him try out her goo tuber once. He hadn’t been very good at using it, but that _had_ been a short while ago. Maybe he’d be better now?

“Eh. Maybe if you squint.” Marie examined the weapon in her hands for a moment. “This thing’s been lying around for a while. Hopefully it still works.” She held down the trigger, causing the charging light to flicker on a second later. With practiced expertise, she swung the weapon’s aim towards the test dummies on the far side of the clearing. One of them immediately exploded as the fire went off.

Both Jake and Callie jumped at the sound.

“Geez, can you _warn_ me next time you do that!?” Callie huffed, a pout on her face as she over-dramatically placed a hand on her chest.

“Still works,” Marie stated, with the hint of a smirk on her face. She held the weapon out to Jake. “Here.”

“ _Whoa_ …” That was all he could manage to say as the fancy-looking charger was placed in his hands. It was a similar design to his brother’s roller, in yellow and shiny black. “Is—is this where Rollo got his weapon?”

“Sorta. The one you’ve probably seen him use is just a replica of the one he used here.” Marie waved the question off with one hand, and turned to walk towards the dilapidated-looking shack. “I’m gonna see if I can dig out my charger. Your weapon in here somewhere too, Callie?”

“Uhhh… I dunno,” Callie shrugged. “I don’t think so. I haven’t used it in a while.”

“Then you’d better find something else to use before your mess tries to kill me. There’s a lot of precariously balanced objects in here.”

“Okay, _one_ , it’s not a mess, and two, I think you’ll find everything in there is _very_ sturdy—” _Crash!_ Callie paused, throwing a sheepish glance at Jake. “Uh… anyway! You okay in there, Marie?”

“Yeah. A box just fell over, that’s all,” Marie called back.

“Oh, okay. C’mon then, kid, let’s see if we can’t find you some cool gear to go with the cool weapon!” Callie said enthusiastically, motioning for him to follow as she too marched towards the building.

Jake did as she asked, deciding it might be safer to wait at the door of the shack. He could see the aftermath of the box-avalanche from here, cans for activating special weapons scattered across the floor amongst a bunch of other things. Marie had managed to pick her way to the far side of the building, pulling another charger out from a pile of various other objects. It also looked different from a regular splat charger, but it wasn’t the same as the one Jake was holding, either.

“Is the roller still in here somewhere?” Callie asked, having to quickly push aside another box that threatened to fall on her.

“Sure, if you want to use a weapon that’s in pieces.” Marie shook her head. She picked up something from behind an old chair as she made the perilous journey back to the door, shooing her cousin outside. “Here. Take this instead.”

Callie stared at the weapon Marie had shoved into her arms for a few seconds. “… A splattershot? Really?” It too did not look like the regular weapon, with the unusual yellow and black coating. “That’s boring.”

“Not as boring as facing the octarians completely unarmed.” Marie dusted off her clothes before reaching into one of the boxes near the door. “That’s what you’re getting, unless you want to hunt through that deathtrap for an octobrush.”

“On second thoughts, this weapon is perfectly fine,” Callie nodded wisely.

“Here.” Finally emerging from the old building, Marie tossed something towards him, and Jake fumbled to catch it without dropping his weapon in the process. “Put these on. It might be easier if you remove your headgear.”

“Oh.” The thing she’d thrown at him looked like some kind of headset. She had two more of them in her other hand; maybe they could be used to communicate as well? “I, uh… can’t take my glasses off. I can’t really... _see_ without these.” He motioned to the black arrowbands on his face. Most inklings had extremely good eyesight and only wore glasses for fashion with fake lenses. He was not most inklings.

Marie seemed surprised for nary a moment before she shrugged it off. “Your family doesn’t have the best luck with eyesight, do they?”

“Nope.” Jake gave a half-hearted shake of his head. He held the charger in one arm as he tried to put the headset on without getting it tangled in the band of his glasses.

“Wait, what’s wrong with Rollo’s eyesight?” Callie’s gaze switched between the two of them as if they were speaking a foreign language.

“He’s practically blind in one eye. You never noticed?” Marie had vanished into the old building once more, her voice muffled by its walls.

“You’re telling me he’s _not_ wearing his fringe over one eye just to be cool and edgy?”

“Oh, trust me, he’s doing both,” Jake nodded, feeling a smile appear on his face. It disappeared after a few seconds as he remembered the reason they were here. “What do you think the octarians want with him? They won’t hurt him, will they?”

“Who knows? Hopefully not.” When Marie returned, closing the door behind her, she was holding a brightly-coloured jacket. Thankfully she decided not to throw it at him this time, and held it out to Jake. “Take this, too. It should protect you against some of their ink. Agent 4 always wore it over his own clothes, so you should be able to do that too, since you’re smaller than he is.”

“Thank you!” Jake said, suddenly realising he hadn’t said those words until now. Everything still felt unreal to him – but Marie and Callie _did_ want to find his brother, and he was grateful for that.

Callie offered a hand to hold the charger while he shrugged the luminescent jacket on. It was a little too big on him, but that meant he was more protected by it, right? One thing he did notice once he had it on, though, was that the shoulder was stitched up in the same place as Rollo’s rider was underneath. “He really _didn’t_ tear his jacket in splat zones, did he?”

“Nope. That’s from an octosniper.” Marie pulled the mask back up to cover the lower half of her face. “The inklings in ranked must be savage nowadays if people believe that. I’m surprised he managed to hide a pretty nasty injury.”

_Injury?_ Thinking back, there _had_ been a time, a month or so back, when Rollo had been complaining that his shoulder hurt… he’d just told Jake that he wrenched it in a match. _Rollo knows the Squid Sisters and has some kind of beef with the octarians. How much more don’t I know about him!?_

Callie mistook his confusion for worry – though she wasn’t entirely wrong – as she handed the charger back to him. “Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll be able to get your brother back. We haven’t failed a mission yet!”

 

* * *

 

Jake didn’t know what to expect, or where he thought they were going to go; there were a bunch of grate-covered kettles on the island he’d been dragged to, and glancing into one showed darkness rather than an endless fall into the canyon below.

“These lead down into the octarian domes,” Callie explained helpfully when she realised how confused he looked. “It’s a bit of a drop, so try to use the side of the pipe to slow your fall.”

Jake swallowed nervously. He didn’t realise he’d signed up for falling a great distance.

“You go first.” Marie nudged her cousin closer to the grate. “You’re the only one with a weapon that doesn’t have to charge.”

“Oh. Wonderful.” Callie grimaced at the splattershot in her hands, and then stared at the looming darkness for a few seconds. “Alright, here goes!” She transformed into a pink squid, hopping forward onto the grate and slipping through, disappearing into the shadows.

A scream of something between excitement and fear echoed up the pipe. Jake took a step back.

“She’s not good with heights,” Marie told him with the hint of a smirk pulling at her features from behind the mask. She stepped onto the grate before casting a quick glance at him. “Don’t wait around up here for too long.” With that said, her inkling form dissolved into green ink, and she vanished between the metal bars.

Jake clutched the unusual-looking weapon closer to his body. This was it. He had to follow them now. No turning back.

He shrunk down into squid form, halting the first time he was about to jump onto the grate because of the instinctual _that’s a long way down and potentially dangerous_. Jake forced his natural fear aside, pushing off the ground with his short tentacles and passing through the grate.

It really was a long way down.

Jake fell for a few seconds before instinctively shifting back and trying to lodge himself into stopping with his hands and feet while also not dropping the charger. The material of the pipe scraped painfully against his palm, but at least he _did_ stop.

There wasn’t even any light below. Where was the bottom of this pipe!?

“Hey, Jake! You coming or not?” That was Callie’s voice echoing up through the darkness; he could feel the sound vibrating in the metal. At least it sounded like she’d reached the other end.

“Y… yeah!” he called back, hoping the fear in his voice wasn’t obvious. _Turn back into a squid. Slide down the wall. You’ve got this._

It was still a scarily fast drop even when he was riding the wall, but soon the faintest trace of light appeared below, and he found himself sliding out of the pipe, falling into a small puddle of ink – fortunately, the same colour as he was. He transformed back into an inkling, trying to keep his legs from shaking as he stood up and took a deep breath.

It didn’t smell very nice here.

“Probably should’ve mentioned colours before we headed in,” Marie commented, partially to herself. The ends of both her and Callie’s hair had turned the same light cyan as Jake’s was. “Not accidentally burning someone on your side with ink is usually recommended.”

“Blue is good,” Callie nodded, drawing one of her tentacles forward and looking at it with a critical eye. “Doesn’t really match my clothes, though.”

Marie rolled her eyes. “How terrible, facing the octarians when your hair and outfit aren’t perfectly co-ordinated.”

“I know, right?” It was impossible to tell if Callie was being sarcastic or not.

Jake gazed at their surroundings, taking in the place he’d ended up. They must have been underground somewhere as there was no sunlight, and it was a little hard to see, but this looked like another floating platform. Odd structures hovered in the distant air, and the entire area seemed to be enclosed – a dome – with the walls made up of blank screens. He dared a glance over one of the railings at the edge of the platform and was met with another very long drop; this time, the ground far below was mostly shadowed with darkness, and he couldn’t see what awaited anyone who fell.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump.

“Don’t fall,” Callie said cheekily, pulling him away from the railings. She too gazed around for a few seconds. “It’s so dark in here.”

“There’s no zapfish to power the place; that’s probably why.” Marie started their trail ahead. “C’mon. I doubt we’ll find much here with the power off, but…”

“If we _do_ find anything, that’s proof the octarians are probably up to something, right?” Callie interjected, twirling the splattershot around one hand as she followed her cousin.

“First of all, stop doing that.” Marie gave her a warning glance; a ‘that’s really childish and you could hurt someone or break something’ look. “Second, we _know_ they’re up to something. Octavio is free and Agent 4 is missing.”

Callie huffed at the order, holding the weapon properly instead. “Then why are we sticking around here?”

“Seeing what we’re up against. This is one of the furthest domes from their base.”

 

* * *

 

Callie had spent a fair amount of time with Rollo – Agent 4 – but most of their encounters had been at Tentakeel Outpost, when she’d make her regular visits to make sure everything was still in order. Much like Marie, he definitely wasn’t a morning person, but league practice dragged him out of bed early, and by now Callie had practically memorised his routine only because it happened to align with hers. They’d chat for a while until one of them, usually Callie, had to leave for work or other plans. Even though she’d only known him for a month, she considered Rollo a pretty good friend.

Since their time spent together was mostly just in the islands above Octo Canyon, though, Callie had heard mention of Rollo’s little brother, but never actually seen him until today. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to be like, but whatever her hypothetical expectations would’ve been, she was pretty sure the inkling she’d met didn’t align with them.

While Rollo had quite a few inches on her, Jake was one of the shortest fully-grown inklings she’d ever encountered. Jake also lacked his brother’s powerful physique; although, granted, anyone who regularly used a heavy weapon like a roller usually developed stronger muscles from it, and she should know. Callie had managed to best Rollo in an arm-wrestling match once; she could still remember the incredulous look on Marie’s face.

If there was one thing Callie wished she’d seen, it was how Rollo had handled the domes. She had the feeling that would be a big difference between the two brothers, too.

They hadn’t gone far before five octocopters materialised in the air around them. Jake yelped in fear and backed away from the floating enemies, eyes wide. He’d probably never seen an octarian before, but that was… a pretty big reaction for such tiny things, especially when one of them was instantly sniped out of the air by Marie.

Callie wasn’t _great_ at aiming a shooter – she was out of practice with anything that wasn’t a roller – but as pretty slow-moving targets she still managed to take two of the things out in quick succession. Once Jake finally got over his initial shock and realised that yes, you are supposed to fire at the enemies, he charged up his weapon and took aim at one of the octocopters.

The charger went off. A line of ink splashed onto the ground. The octarian was perfectly fine. It took a deep breath, ready to fire an attack at him, and Jake recoiled in fear.

Marie shot the octocopter, causing it to explode into blue ink before it could spit out any of its own.

“Oh boy,” Callie muttered under her breath, hopefully out of Jake’s hearing range, and exchanged a glance with her cousin. Marie raised an eyebrow, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just witnessed.

_He’s certainly not as…_ brave _, as his brother._ Callie thought to herself. The one remaining octocopter spat an attack at her and she casually stepped aside, letting the slow-moving purple bubble float past her and drip harmlessly onto the ground. Marie held down the trigger on her weapon to charge it, but Callie stopped her with a wave of her hand.

Callie pointed at the octocopter, which looked very confused. “Try hitting this one,” she said to Jake. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Marie move a little to the side, out of range of a missed shot.

“O-oh, okay,” Jake nodded. He aimed the charger, took a breath, focused hard, waited until the weapon had enough ink stored to make a full shot…

And missed. Again.

Callie ducked as another ink bubble drifted over her head. “One more try?” There was still hope in her voice. _Come on. You can’t be_ that _bad._

He was only as bad as his two missed attempts so far; the third time, he actually managed to hit the enemy. It burst into blue ink, and Callie breathed a sigh of relief. _Finally._

Marie watched him with a level expression. _He’s terrible at this, and she knows it._ She said nothing, though, just shrugging and moving on.

There were stronger octarians as they advanced; some octotroopers and even an octobomber, which Marie swiftly took out before it could hurl explosives at them. Callie kept a close eye on Jake, in case he ended up in danger. He was trying his best, she was sure… but his best wasn’t very good. The one time he did manage to hit an enemy, the charger fire was blocked by a shield, but at least it provided enough of a distraction that Callie was able to sneak behind the octotrooper and take it out.

More than once, she caught Marie’s disappointed sighs as she watched the younger inkling trying to fight, taking aim at the enemy herself before he could end up seriously injured. Callie didn’t need to be psychic to know what she was thinking; Jake really wasn’t cut out for a dangerous place like this. Despite her ‘safety in numbers’ comment earlier, she could tell now that he was more of a hindrance than a help.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Marie said quietly as they passed through the area they’d just cleared out; a large open space with a few sturdy walls dotted around.

Trying to remain hopeful, Callie gave a half-hearted smile. She was silently glad that none of them had been separated enough to warrant actually switching on their headsets yet. “Yeah, we haven’t really found any clues here.”

“You _know_ that’s not what I mean,” Marie scoffed, casting a glance at Jake, who had wandered on ahead slightly to look at the floating structures. Perhaps this place was like some kind of perilous museum to him.

Callie just threw her a sympathetic look as they started to catch up to him, knowing if she said anything in response he’d probably overhear now. _He’s trying. We have to give him that, at least. He could’ve given up and left at any time._

“Do you think we’ll find him soon?” Jake asked once they reached him. His entire body was shivering, the residual effect of the adrenaline and fear he’d had as they fought their way through this place, but there was still an ounce of hope in his eyes.

“I doubt we’ll find him anywhere in this place,” Marie said plainly, clearly not as worried as Callie was about crushing that ounce. “There’s more octarians around than I thou— octocommander! _Hide_!”

Callie had barely registered the sound of something warping in just ahead of them before Marie grabbed her by the arm and dragged her behind the shelter of a nearby wall.

Jake turned to look behind him, and the moment he did, let out a cry of fear at the gigantic and deadly monster that towered above him. The whirring noise of a splatling charge chilled the air.

“Jake!” Callie shouted. “Take shelter! _Now_!”

It didn’t look like he’d heard her. Jake had frozen, eyes wide with terror, staring at the looming danger like a shrimp at the jaws of an angler fish.

Callie swore under her breath. She had a naturally protective nature, and hopefully this wouldn’t be the day it screwed her over. Bracing herself, she sprung from the shelter, ignoring Marie’s horrified cry.

“ _Callie_!”

The octocommander’s fire started up a second before she reached Jake. He cried out as some of the shots pelted against him but was cut off as Callie tackled him behind the nearby wall. She winced as one of the shots caught her leg.

She lost him as she hit the ground; fortunately they were both behind the wall now, blocked from the rapid fire as purple ink splashed to the ground beyond them. Jake had curled up, wailing as he tried to cover his ears with the headset in the way to block out the noise.

A second later the octocommander let out a gargled screech, exploding into cyan at the familiar _CRACK_ of a fully-loaded charger shot.

The dome faded into silence once more, other than Jake’s muffled sniffling. He was crying again. This time, Callie didn’t really blame him.

If he’d stayed in that monster’s fire, he’d almost certainly have died.

Callie rolled onto her back, feeling her heartbeat thundering in her chest still. “Geez. That’s one way to take a year or two off your lifespan.” She felt the sting in her leg, and shakily pushed herself up into sitting to survey the damage. One of the shots had scraped the side of her leg, just above her left knee, and she wiped off the purple ink with one hand to stop it from burning her skin. There was some dark blue mixed in there too; the colour of squid blood. “Ouch.” At least it wasn’t deep; nothing a plaster and some antiseptic couldn’t fix.

Marie was by them in an instant, trainers smeared with blue and purple ink. “Are you okay?” She was probably referring to both of them, but looked at Callie as she asked. Her usual forced blank expression had crumbled in the panic, now replaced with one of concern.

“Just a scratch,” Callie shrugged, instinctively holding a hand over the injury even though it wouldn’t matter if she dripped blood on the floor here. Jake was still on the ground, in the same foetal position from before, and she gently placed her free hand on his shoulder. “Jake?” He’d taken some hits from that octocommander too. He hadn’t been badly injured, had he?

He flinched at the contact, shivering madly as he dared uncover his face at last. His cheeks were stained with tears once again, and the front of the luminescent jacket was splattered with purple ink which was slowly fading, but thankfully it didn’t look like any of it had pierced the surface. He might have a few bruises, at worst. “I-i-is it g-gone?”

“Yep!” Callie breathed a sigh of relief. That had been too close for comfort. “Marie exploded the big mean octarian for us. Isn’t she nice?” She moved the hand away from her leg, grimacing at the smudge of blue on her palm.

The second she caught sight of the blood, Marie’s eyebrows rose in horror. It wasn’t a few seconds before they furrowed, and her gaze – now a fierce glare – snapped to Jake. “What in fresh hell was that!?”

It took a moment for Jake to realise he was talking to her, but when he did, he startled. With shaking arms, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. “I-I’m sorry, I just…” His words seemed to vanish in his throat. He’d been terrified, but was too stubborn to say that out loud even now.

“A powerful enemy like that takes aim at you and you just _stand_ there? That thing could’ve _killed_ you!” Her words were met with silence; there were fresh tears welling in Jake’s eyes over being shouted at. Marie let out a controlled sigh, shifting her glare to Callie, where it only softened a little. She was mad at her too for that selfless display. “Can you walk?”

_It’s just a scrape, geez!_ For once, Callie decided it was better to not jab at her cousin. Marie rarely lost her temper, but Callie had seen plenty of times what could happen if someone _did_ push her buttons too much. “Yeah.” To prove that fact, she climbed back to her feet. The injury stung a little, but it wouldn’t stop her from walking.

“Good. We’re leaving,” Marie stated firmly, turning back the way they’d come with an irritated stiffness in her stride. “There’s nothing around but octarians, we’re done here.”

“But—” Jake started, but was quickly interrupted.

“ _Done_.”

Callie watched her lead the way with a quiet sigh. This wasn’t how she’d expected their little expedition to go at all. Marie hadn’t even bothered to ask if Jake was alright; Callie offered him a hand. “You okay, squiddo?”

He stared up at her for a moment, his gaze wary as if he expected her to suddenly turn cold like her cousin. When she didn’t, he gave a small nod, and replied through a shaky breath. “Yeah.” He reached for his fallen weapon and took her hand, letting her pull him up – he looked a little surprised at the strength behind the action, and his hands were still shaking when he let go. “Thank you… for, uh, shoving me.”

“No prob! I should take up rugby,” Callie joked, trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t work. She gave a half-hearted smile. “Next time a big scary monster tries to shoot you, though, save me the papercut and run away, alright?”

“Y-yeah. Sorry.” Unable to meet her gaze, Jake tried to wipe the tears off his face with one hand.

_Poor kid. His brother is missing and now he gets subjected to this._ Callie forced the grin brighter. “Let’s get out of here, okay? We gotta catch up to Marie before she either leaves us behind or gets eaten by an octarian.”

 

* * *

 

All three of them were silent as they made their way back to Tentakeel Outpost. No more octarians appeared, so they’d either defeated all the ones here or the creatures had decided a retreating enemy wasn’t a threat, and Jake had never been more relieved in his life. He didn’t want to see another octarian ever again, not even one of those little floating ones.

For the most part, he kept his gaze on the ground, occasionally sneaking a hopeful glance at Marie, which went unnoticed every time. She stayed a few metres ahead of them for the entire walk, not looking back once, not even when Callie tried to approach her and only got ignored for her efforts. The black-haired inkling let her retain her lead, looking over her shoulder with a sheepish shrug.

Jake managed a small smile in response now that the shock was starting to wear off. He caught a glimpse of the injury on her leg, though, and immediately felt a small pang of guilt. She’d been hurt because of him, being stupid and freezing in fear when an enemy was about to turn him into fried squid.

Maybe that was why Marie was so mad at him. She and Callie seemed to bicker a lot, but perhaps Marie was very protective of her close family.

_Just like Rollo._ Jake’s gaze fell back to the ground once more, and he bit his lip when he felt it quiver again. He wished his brother was here. Rollo would’ve stood up for him. He would have protected him from the octarians.

If Rollo was here, they wouldn’t be down in the octarian domes in the first place.

Getting back up the pipe was a lot less scary than going down thanks to a temporary launch pad. Callie broke the silence for the first time as Marie vanished, warning Jake to stay in squid form and only turn back into an inkling after he was through the grate, otherwise it’d be a painful collision with the metal.

The tense silence continued aboveground. “I’m gonna see if I can find a plaster or something,” Callie said, taking a few steps towards the old shack as the ends of her hair faded back to their natural pink. “There’s a first aid kit around here somewhere, right?”

“Somewhere,” Marie responded unhelpfully.

“…Ooookay.” Callie rolled her eyes, continuing on her path and disappearing into the building. For a few seconds there was the sound of her rummaging around as she searched. “Aha!”

That just left Jake out here, alone with an inkling who he was pretty sure was mad at him. Marie still hadn’t even looked at him since that run-in with the octocommander, and now kept to herself by inspecting her charger.

_Perhaps I should apologise. It was kind of my fault, after all._ Jake took a deep breath – his chest stung a little, maybe he’d overexerted himself today – and waited a few moments for anxiety to stop blocking his words. “I… I’m sorry. I just wanted to help.”

Marie let out a single laugh. That wasn’t exactly the response he’d been expecting. “What, by getting yourself gunned down by a splatling? So helpful.” Her voice was heavy with sarcasm, and when her gaze finally met Jake’s, she looked far from impressed.

“No, I mean…” He didn’t know how to explain himself. She must have known he wouldn’t purposely put himself or anyone else in danger; he’d just frozen in fear, and Marie had little sympathy for that. “I wanted to help find Rollo. Safety in numbers…?” He hoped quoting what Callie had said earlier might help.

It only fuelled the fire. Marie’s brow creased with anger. “It’s not safety in numbers if we have to spend every minute making sure you’re not getting yourself killed!” She snatched the black-and-yellow charger from his grip. “You’re nothing but a stupid naïve brat.”

“Marie,” Callie said softly, a hint of warning in her voice as she emerged from the old hut. Even she looked surprised by the outburst.

Jake tried to hold his ground. _Don’t cry. You can’t cry in front of her now, you’ll just prove her point._ “I-I…” His voice still caught in his throat as much as he fought against it, and he didn’t have a good reply. He looked to the ground again, unable to meet the cold glare any longer. “I just want my brother back.”

“We can find Agent 4 without you getting in our way.” Marie ignored the look from her cousin as she stalked past her to return the borrowed weapon to the messy building. “Get lost, kid.”

Jake watched her go with stunned silence, stubbornly blinking away the tears in his eyes. _Focus on something else._ He wrestled the bright jacket off, uncomfortable under so many layers but glad he’d had the thing to protect him from the enemy ink. He was met with the familiar sight of his brother’s jacket underneath, and that made fighting back the tears even harder as he felt a fresh wave creeping in.

Callie, obviously feeling sorry for him, gently patted his shoulder. “She’s not usually like this, I swear. Don’t feel too bad, though; not everyone is cut out for a warzone.”

_A warzone._ Her words sunk in, and Jake shivered as he untangled the headset from the band of his glasses. It reminded him of the brief mentions of The Great Turf War in history class, barely mentioned in the place so far from Inkopolis he and his brother had grown up, but what the more recent sport had been named after. “I just wanted to help,” he repeated again, passing Callie the agent-like gear when she held out a hand for it.

“I know, I know,” she nodded with a sympathetic smile. “I’ll let you know if there’s anything you can do, okay? We’ll find him.”

“Sure. Thanks.” Jake forced a smile back, but it was incredibly half-hearted. He felt awful; he’d messed everything up and got in their way, and they weren’t any closer to finding out what the octarians had done with Rollo.

_What if they never find him? What if he’s gone forever?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Callie a lot.
> 
> Also, if anyone wants to see refs to picture what the non-canon characters look like, you can see them [here](https://sta.sh/21xjfzpd3rzn) (only a few of them actually have refs so far but more might be added, eventually...)


	3. Reunion

Jake wasn’t usually one for labelling days of “the worst in his life”, but he was pretty sure this one must be up there somewhere. And to think, it had started out as an almost perfectly normal day, with Rollo only managing to convince him to work at the shady egg-collecting company by lending him his jacket “for luck”.

He was pretty sure this jacket didn’t have any kind of luck imbued in it at all.

Lucky or not, it was clean now. Jake may not have been any good at working shifts at Grizzco, but at least he knew how to do basic chores, and after the long day he’d had he decided to just wash the jacket, making sure all the abilities on it remained intact, and hang it in Rollo’s room for when he returned.

_If he returns._

No. Rollo _would_ come back. He had to believe that. If Rollo couldn’t escape whoever had taken him captive, then Callie and Marie would save him.

Jake wanted to help. He really did. But after his performance earlier that day… even he didn’t believe he could be useful.

Now that he was finally home, it was a relief to finally change out of his binder. He’d decided to wear the thing today knowing he’d have to change into different clothes anyway before work at Grizzco, but he hadn’t anticipated all the action that’d gone down afterwards. Whenever he took part in matches, his best friend was his blue hoodie, which was purposefully a few sizes too big. He hadn’t expected to be out so long today, and after having something pulling his chest flat for all that time he felt a little breathless, but in his mind it was still worth it. As much of a terrible impression as he’d probably made on the Squid Sisters, at least they hadn’t mistaken him for a girl.

Getting hit with enemy ink was a lot more painful when not in the controlled stages of turf war or ranked, though, where every measure was taken to make sure inklings wouldn’t get harmed. Jake could already feel at least three bruises forming on his body. He’d been lucky that Callie had managed to push him out of the way of that octocommander’s fire without either of them getting a serious injury.

Marie had been really mad at him after that. Perhaps it was warranted. Why had he just frozen and stared at that thing as it was about to kill him? That was stupid. He was such a baby. Marie was right; he would only get in their way.

At least Callie hadn’t been quite so harsh. Ignoring the look of disapproval from her cousin, she’d exchanged numbers with Jake before he left, mostly because he _was_ the brother of their esteemed Agent 4, and that was the only way of contacting him if something happened. Too bad Jake couldn’t brag to anyone about having the number of one of the Squid Sisters. He was going to keep his promise and not tell anyone about Octo Canyon or anything that happened there.

Jake wasn’t used to the house being so quiet, though – or spending the evenings alone. If Rollo planned on going out somewhere over dinner he’d make sure to leave something for Jake, so the younger inkling didn’t know how to cook anything of substance and had to settle for hunting through the cupboards for sandwich ingredients. It wasn’t exactly a filling meal, but it was better than nothing.

He couldn’t sleep that night. The house was hardly ever silent when he went to bed. There’d always be the muffled sound of Rollo playing video games until a ridiculous hour of the morning; he worked or played ranked or league all day, and that was how he relaxed after, even though Jake couldn’t for the life of him imagine how creeping around a zombie-infested house was relaxing.

When they moved to Inkopolis, Jake had been passed the job title of ‘make sure Rollo doesn’t stay up all night playing video games’, but he’d never put much effort into it. He tried, sure, and would remind his brother every night that he needed to go to bed, but after being given an absent nod and a “yeah, sure”, Jake would give up, and more often than not Rollo would fall asleep on his toast the next morning.

Jake considered switching on the television or something for background noise, but he didn’t want to skyrocket the electricity bill by leaving it on all night. Instead, he sat in bed checking his phone, sending messages to Rollo in the hopes that maybe the Squid Sisters’ info had been wrong, and that he’d just… gone out for the day and caught the wrong train, or something.

[16:46] hey bRo, are you gonna be home soon? It’s been hours

[16:59] you’ll never believe who I met today!! Guess!!

[17:04] no guess huh. I met the squid sisters!!!!

[17:04] Callie even gave me her number I bet your jealous

[17:05] tho I guess you already know them huh

[17:05] they think you’ve been captured by an octopus. sounds scary.

[18:14] I’m gonna wash your jacket speak now or forever hold your peace

[18:46] I washed it and it didn’t get ruined the day is saved

[18:46] its on your wardrobe when you get home hopefully that’s soon

[18:47] and no its not scrubbed im not an urchin

[20:35] its really late Rollo please come home soon

[20:39] please message me

[20:58] where are you its like 9pm

[21:45] do the octarians have a nice place

[21:48] I hope they gave you food at least bc we only have bread and jam at home

[22:24] I hope you’re okay I miss you

[23:38] if the octarians have video games make sure you go to bed soon

No matter what he said, there was no response. There was nothing Jake could do, other than hope with all his heart that things would be okay as he lay there trying to sleep.

 

* * *

 

He didn’t know how long he was awake for, but he must have drifted off at some point, because the next thing Jake knew he was being woken up by the notification sound on his phone. Groggy from sleep, which had been cursed by dreams of monsters and massive splatlings, he rubbed his eyes and checked the screen, wincing at how bright it was compared to his room.

1 new message: Rollo

The recent events came rushing back, and with a sudden burst of energy Jake sat up and tapped the notification. Everything had been a dream after all. Or Marie had been wrong. Rollo was okay!

[07:36] ʇɥǝ oɔʇɐɹᴉɐus ɐɹǝ ɐɟʇǝɹ ʇɥǝ zɐdɟᴉsɥ

Jake stared at the nonsense in front of him for a long moment, wondering if it _actually_ made no sense or if it was because he’d only just woken up. “…huh?”

[07:36] what??

[07:37] the octarians are after the zapfish

[07:37] they’re on their way

[07:37] tell callie

He could understand _that_.

[07:37] ok, be careful!!

Jake didn’t know what was happening – his best guess was that Rollo had found out the octarian’s plans, and his brother was the only person he could contact to stop them. If that was the case, he needed to do everything to help.

He took a screenshot of the messages and sent it to Callie, after a brief moment of _oh my goodness I really have the number of one of the Squid Sisters_ , and hoped she wasn’t a late sleeper. Apparently not, because she responded within minutes.

[07:40] thanks kiddo! Looks like we’re dealing with some nasty stuff after all

[07:40] you should stay home where it’s safe

_No way._ Quickly changing into his clothes and deciding an apple would do for breakfast, Jake grabbed the jet squelcher in its case from the corner of his room before rushing out the door.

 

* * *

 

Inkopolis was rather quiet early in the morning; most inklings didn’t like to get up early, so the only ones out were those that had jobs, and the local jellyfish. The shutters were half-open in the window of Ammo Knights despite it being before opening time, and Jake caught a glimpse of pink and black inside. _Callie’s here._

The bell chimed as he pushed the door open, ignoring the CLOSED sign on the door. Sheldon and Callie had been deep in conversation, but the crab let out a yelp of surprise at suddenly being interrupted. “S-so sorry, we’re not open yet!”

Callie had instinctively slipped the sunglasses on her forehead down over her eyes, probably so she wouldn’t be recognised, but when she noticed it was Jake she pushed them back up, frowning. “What are you doing here? I told you to stay home.”

Jake let the door swing shut behind him, feeling a small pang of doubt settle in his stomach. He’d thought Callie actually liked him, but her accusatory tone sounded similar to how Marie had spoken to him yesterday. “I want to help,” he insisted, determination in his voice.

Her gaze uncertain, Callie took a long moment to respond, shaking her head as she did so. “Okay, okay, but try to keep out of danger this time,” she said, contradicting her motion. She saw how confused Sheldon looked, and decided to give an introduction. “This is Jake. He’s Agent 4’s brother; he’s the one who got sent the message.”

“Oh! I see, I see!” Sheldon nodded quickly, and would’ve sent the helmet flying off his head if it wasn’t attached. He waved one of his short arms at Jake. “We’ve got a good view of Deca Tower and the great zapfish from here, so we’ll spot the octarians if they try anything!”

“Everything’s pretty quiet so far,” Callie shrugged, crouching down so that she could see out the half-shuttered window. “Which is weird. If they’re going to make a move, surely they’d be smart enough to do it before the place gets crowded.”

Jake joined them, annoyingly aware of the fact that he didn’t have to lower his head much to see. He wasn’t exactly the tallest inkling. “Where’s Marie?”

“Ha, well,” Callie said with a sheepish smile. “She refused to come, saying something about how you were foolish to give information to the enemy. Plus, well, even I can’t drag Marie out of bed before nine in the morning.”

“Oh.” Jake sighed, pressing his face sulkily to the glass – and moved back quickly when Sheldon threw him an irritated glance for fogging up his store window. “I don’t think Marie likes me much.”

“Of course she likes you! She’s just… bad at showing it?” Even Callie knew that was a feeble excuse, and her hopeless expression showed it. “Yeah, she’s being a jerk. She does that sometimes. I think she’s upset at herself for not being able to stop all this from happening.”

“If only grandpappy were here,” Sheldon said with a doleful look. “He would’ve known what to do.”

“I wish Gramps wasn’t off somewhere with Agent 3. They left us to deal with a pretty big mess alone. Still, we’ve gotta try our best—”

She stopped speaking, ears twitching at a sudden noise from outside. An odd, blubbering wail.

“A zapfish?” Sheldon exclaimed, tilting his shell helmet back to look up at the tower. The great zapfish was still curled around the top as usual.

“Should I go check it out?” Jake asked, shrugging off one of the shoulder straps of his weapon case.

Callie looked like she was going to say no at first; then she decided against it, the smallest of smiles appearing on her face as she nodded. He had his own weapon now, not the charger, even if it wouldn’t be as effective.  “Sure. I’ll be here to back you up. Just… try not to get seen holding a weapon in town.”

She reached over and grabbed the handle of a weapon Jake hadn’t even realised belonged to her at first, in the middle of the weapons store. It was another unusual-looking roller, but Rollo’s might as well be a tin can compared to how fancy this one looked, coloured entirely in shiny black. Callie effortlessly swung the huge weapon over her shoulder, and Jake felt his jaw drop.

“What?” she tilted her head.

“Ah—nothing! I just, I’ve never seen your weapon before, that’s all!” Jake said hurriedly. He’d seen Marie use her charger yesterday, but she’d just shoved a splattershot at Callie for her to use while they were in the octarian dome. Callie’s question about the roller had completely flown over his head. _I expected her main weapon to be something… smaller._

“You should take a leaf outta your brother’s book sometime, squiddo,” Callie beamed. “Rollers are pretty great. Anyway, let’s go, let’s go!”

 

* * *

 

Jake followed the cries of the zapfish, running as fast as his bulky weapon would allow. Callie’s was still less mobile than his without throwing ink all over the town – which they’d definitely get in trouble for – and it wasn’t long before he’d left her behind, racing through the alleys of Inkopolis.

He could see the tanuki and fox statues of Inkopolis Plaza in the distance when he finally caught a glimpse of the terrified creature before it vanished around a corner. It was in a rubber bag, insulating its electricity, carried on someone’s back. _Was that an octarian? They looked like an inkling, but the octolings_ do _look like inklings, if Marina is anything to go by._

“Hey! Stop!” he shouted, then mentally slapped himself because _why_ would they stop? He was chasing them.

However, when he turned the corner, he was met with the figure standing halfway down the next alley. They _had_ stopped. Fumbling to turn it the right way after the mad dash, he held up his jet squelcher, aiming it at the zapfish thief as a warning.

The zapfish continued to wail pitifully, but its captor didn’t seem scared at all. Jake wasn’t exactly a huge threat.

_Wait._

Slowly he dropped the aim of his weapon to the floor.

The black-and-yellow roller held by the inkling in front of him clicked into horizontal mode.

“ _Rollo_?” Jake’s eyes flew wide as the realisation fell into place. He almost hadn’t recognised him; it was so rare to see Rollo with his ink colour the natural cyan they both had, instead of the pink he usually changed it to when outside of matches. Oddly, though, the ink on his roller didn’t match the colour of his hair; it was a deep pinkish-purple. The shirt he’d had on the last time Jake saw him had been replaced by some kind of armour that only guarded the top half of his torso, and had matching gloves and a double belt.

Rollo didn’t respond to his name. He took a step towards his brother.

“Rollo, you’re okay!” Relief flooded through him. “When you didn’t come home last night I thought something terrible had happened to you! Where _were_ you!?” _And where did you get that armour!?_

There was no answer to his question; just a flash of purple as the roller was swung at him.

Jake gasped and tried to move away, his back hitting the wall. The roller slammed into the bricks above his head. Purple ink splashed onto him, stinging against his skin in a way that felt far too harsh for regular inkling ink.

Rollo stared down at him with a cold glare. “ _Stay out of my way_.”

“R-Rollo?” Jake’s voice shook. What was happening? Why was he acting like this!? He was his _brother_! Sure, they’d fought sometimes, but Rollo had never _threatened_ him!

_And why does he have a zapfish!?_

“Hey!”

Rollo’s gaze snapped around as the new voice – his eye looked different than usual, too, but Jake couldn’t quite place what was wrong.

“Leave that kid alone!” Callie had reached them at last; she brandished her roller as a threat. “And give back the zapfish!”

“Callie, don’t hurt him!” Jake cried. “It’s Rollo!”

“What!?” Her confusion turned to shock as she realised what he said was true.

Wrenching his roller back from the wall, Rollo darted towards her, miscoloured ink dripping from his weapon. The look in his eyes hadn’t changed. Cold _. Murderous._

_“Stop!”_ Jake wailed. He did the only thing he could without risking injury to anyone; throw a bottle of toxic mist.

It shattered on the ground in front of Rollo and burst into blue fog. Jake didn’t know if it would affect Rollo at all while his hair was the same colour, but it’d still drain the ink from his weapon. Rollo halted before he could touch the mist, backing away. It would affect Callie too if she tried to pass through it, but by the time the mist wore off, she’d be more than ready for his attack.

Rollo turned back to glare at Jake once more.

_That’s not Rollo. It can’t be. Rollo wouldn’t do something like this…_

It was barely noticeable, but Rollo winced. His eyes narrowed. He cast a quick glance through the mist; then took off past Jake at a run.

“Rollo—Rollo, stop, come back!” Jake cried, ready to chase after him once more. He couldn’t lose him again.

A purple aura flamed from the older inkling.

Callie noticed it before he did. “Jake, wait!” She abandoned her roller, jumping through the fading mist to grab his arm and pull him back.

A moment later, the alleyway was filled with the raging whirlpool of a splashdown.

It blasted them back, and it was a few moments before Jake recovered enough to move, warily opening his eyes. The walls of the alley were sprayed with purple, as was most of the ground in front of them. Fortunately, neither he nor Callie had been close enough to get badly injured, just splashes of ink on their clothes.

There was no sign of Rollo anymore, though.

_No… no, he can’t be gone! He can’t leave!_ Jake took a deep breath, shouting as loud as he could. “ ** _ROLLO_** _!_ ”

The only reply was his voice echoing off the ink-smoothed walls.

He’d thought yesterday was the worst day of his life. It wasn’t even nine in the morning, and today had already taken its place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this story was planned / written before Octo Expansion was released, so while the events of it have now occurred in the time of this story, the bonus chatlog hasn't happened yet and they still don't know where the captain and Agent 3 are. Everyone is terrible at communication. A regular family!
> 
> If you asked me how the logic for ink works in this story I would have to sort of wave my hands at you in a very confused way because honestly even I don't really have a clue.


	4. Moral Obligation

Rollo never knew what he was getting into that day, but in hindsight, he was glad that he was foolish enough to dive into a sewer pipe after a random stranger, solely on the basis of ‘she might need help if she fell in’ and ‘if this is a mugging I only have pocket change on me’.

He liked to think he had a good instinct. Sometimes he could practically sniff out an opponent hiding in the ink and splat them. Occasionally said opponent did just turn out to be a leaf, so whether that was a genuine skill or just him getting lucky sometimes was up for debate. It had helped him rise to S+1 so far either way, so he wasn’t complaining, no matter how many leaves needed to be sacrificed.

Apparently, this person he’d followed was some kind of celebrity. Rollo had absolutely no clue who she was, not even when she made a likely trademarked hand motion, holding it for an awkwardly long time as she waited for some kind of lightbulb to go off in his head.

“… You really don’t know me? For eel?”

“Uh…” Rollo tried to stall for more time, hoping maybe he’d either remember something or just think of a better excuse. “I don’t think so…” He hadn’t lived here for long, and still had only a small knowledge of the Inkopolis culture, but he had the feeling he’d heard the words _Squid_ and _Sisters_ used in succession before. “Are you, like… a singer?”

Marie shot him the most unimpressed glance. “Well, even if you’ve been living under a rock, at least you’re decent at guessing. Callie and I used to be the most famous squids in these parts, so I guess we really must have faded if you don’t know who we are.” She tapped the pole of her parasol against her shoulder. “You really haven’t heard any of the songs? Not even Calamari Inkantation? Or any of the annoying jingles I had to get stuck in my head for weeks for ad campaigns?”

Rollo shook his head, a little helplessly. She could’ve sung _Happy_ _Birthday_ and it would’ve taken him a few lines just to recognise the melody, he was as tone deaf as a brick. “My little brother likes music, he might have mentioned you once or twice.”

“Thank goodness bad taste doesn’t run in the family.”

Shortly after, he was geared up in a slightly garish outfit which would have looked more impressive at night, and dubbed the name of ‘Agent 4’. He couldn’t tell if it was some kind of spy code – were there agents one through three? – or if Marie was just bad at remembering names. Perhaps it was both. Apparently his mission, mostly as a test, was to see if he could retrieve a zapfish from one of the octarian domes, because ‘this one seems relatively quiet, the enemy probably isn’t that strong’.

Rollo had never seen an octarian before in his life, but the lowliest of them were hideous creatures, which didn’t make his incredibly poor aim any better. His only saving grace was that he was able to dodge their slow attacks.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use a splattershot so badly in my entire life,” Marie had commented when he returned, smeared with purple ink and zapfish in hand. She was good at holding a blank expression – or smirk, whichever she preferred – so it was impossible for Rollo to tell whether she was exaggerating or incredibly disappointed. Either way, she could very well be correct.

“I’m not exactly known for my excellent aim with shooters,” Rollo said plainly, managing to form a cool smile. He was utter garbage with this weapon, but he’d never been _required_ to use a splattershot before. Regular turf weapons weren’t strong enough for a war zone.

“I’m not surprised, especially since you’ve lost an entire eye to your hair.” She pulled the largest section of her fringe down over her right eye for emphasis, but it flicked right back into place as soon as she let go. “I know squids are all about being fresh in battle, but sacrificing your depth perception to look cool is kinda foolish.”

“Yeah, well,” Rollo pulled a face. _Should I show her?_ He might as well. Anyone he spent time with seemed to notice eventually, and it was better than her thinking he was a stubborn idiot who only cared about looks. Switching his weapon to the arm cradling the zapfish, he used his free hand to push the fringe away from his eye, showing the white pupil underneath. “Guess I’m a depth-perception-less fool.”

“Oh.” Marie visibly flinched for the first time, probably realising her comment now seemed a little insensitive and was considering whether she should apologise for it. “Whoops. Sorry. Wish I’d noticed that sooner.”

_To avoid saying that, or to turn me away before I’d even got here?_

Despite her harsh criticism of his skills – or lack thereof – she let him continue on as her Agent 4. He could have given up and left, letting her find some other poor sap to go on this dangerous mission for her, but for some reason… he stayed. Mostly because he wanted to get the Great Zapfish back, and also the electricity in his house which fluctuated badly without it, but he had the feeling Marie had some kind of ulterior motive.

At the very least, Marie became more bearable to talk to when Rollo worked out that sass and sarcasm were her sense of humour. For the most part, Rollo was pretty thick skinned, so any jab directed at him just reverberated off and he’d respond with a genuine laugh. It was still difficult to tell what her true intentions were, though, especially when he faced a giant octoweapon which appeared to just be a toaster, and Marie spent the entire time feeding – no pun intended – bread puns into the communicator.

“If you don’t stop that I’m shutting you off,” Rollo said, inking the side of a massive bread loaf which had popped out of the machine as it recovered from its last attack. This thing was even easier to defeat than the smaller enemies; he barely even had to aim at anything!

“Okay, I’ll stop. _Croissant_ my heart.” It was almost possible to hear the wicked grin on her face. “No, but really. If you shut off communications and something goes wrong, you could die. So… _doughn’t_ even think about it.”

“I hope this toaster kills me.”

After destroying that octoweapon, though, Marie had a surprise for him; Sheldon was apparently part of this too, and he’d brought more weapons.

Including a roller.

Perhaps that was why Marie hadn’t given up on him yet. She’d been plotting to give him a weapon he could actually use. And, well, maybe finding out if he would die in the process of clearing out this first area with the splattershot he was terrible with. Thanks, Marie.

Once he had a roller in hand, no octarian could stop him, save for the one octosniper that managed to land a particularly nasty hit. The extra experience honed his skills for ranked, too, and while he rarely spoke about his own life while out on the field, he decided to mention this to Marie for once.

“I hit S+9 yesterday,” he hummed, strolling towards a launch pad after clearing the surrounding area of the tentacle-shaped monsters. “The team I’m on just signed up for league try-outs.”

“Whew, didn’t know I’d recruited such a bigshot!” Marie laughed over the communicator. Rollo didn’t know if that meant anything to her, but he had been attempting to casually quiz his brother for all he knew about the Squid Sisters, and apparently Marie and her cousin used to host the Inkopolis News, although that was before the splat league had been set up. “If I’d known you were a pro roller player I’d have just thrown Callie’s roller at you right from the get-go. Well—okay, no, she’d probably kill me if I did that, but you get what I mean. You’ve got one now, anyhow. Better late than never, right?”

_Callie again._ Marie mentioned her a lot, but not once had Rollo actually seen her. “She’s your cousin, right?” He hoped she had actually mentioned that at some point, because he only remembered it from Jake telling him. “What happened to her?”

“Nothing.” The reply was so sudden and guarded, it had to be false. “Nothing happened, she—she’s fine.”

Rollo didn’t press the matter. Clearly _something_ was wrong, but she didn’t want to talk about it. Marie didn’t mention her personal life much either.

It was only a week later, after Rollo had defeated an octoweapon with a fancy coat and too many faces, when she finally spilled and told him the real main reason she was going after the Great Zapfish.

Callie was missing. She’d vanished on the same day. The only logical explanation was that the two were connected.

Marie apologised for not telling him sooner, but Rollo didn’t hold it against her. He wouldn’t expect a random stranger to risk their life to save a person they didn’t know. Callie was clearly very important to her – that must have been why they were called the squid _sisters_ despite being cousins, even if it was a little confusing – and Rollo understood that bond completely.

Rollo hated to imagine it, but if something like this were to happen to his little brother, he’d take on the world to save him. That was the way things always had been, and how they always would be.

 

* * *

 

The apartment was silent when Callie returned, which honestly wasn’t surprising for half ten in the morning. She spent more time than necessary taking off her shoes and hat, trying to work out how best to explain everything that’d happened that morning.

Much to what she’d expected, Marie hadn’t been very responsive at the crack of dawn, being especially grumpy when Callie tried to shove the glaring light of a phone screen in her face to show the messages Jake had forwarded to her. The serous situation had only managed to drag her into being half awake long enough to check her own phone.

“Agent 4 still hasn’t replied to me and one of those messages is upside down,” she’d mumbled before cocooning herself back in the duvet. “Octarians probably have his phone. Could be a trap. Stupid worthless kid giving information to the enemy.”

“Well… I’m gonna go check it out just to be sure,” Callie had shrugged. When Marie threw her a brief worried yet sleepy glance, she added, “I won’t go after any of them on my own. Sheldon’s probably up ready for when the stores open.”

She hadn’t thought much would come of the tip-off, though, especially given Marie’s doubts. Perhaps just the octarians plotting something – and she had the feeling they _were_ , but this was much worse than she could have imagined.

Still… after the events from the past few months, she felt like she should’ve seen this coming. That didn’t make her hate it any less.

Callie pushed open the door to Marie’s room. She hadn’t moved from the mound of duvet earlier, still fast asleep. _Typical._ Callie half wanted to wait until she got up to recount the story, but she felt like she needed to tell it as soon as possible, even if that meant dealing with a grumpy Marie.

She was scared. Scared of what the octarians had done. Scared of the way Rollo had looked at her when he was about to attempt an attack. As far as she was concerned it might as well have been a miracle that neither she nor Jake actually got injured.

“Hey… Mar.” After waiting for five seconds with no response, Callie sidled up to the bed, shaking Marie’s shoulder. “Hey. Wakey or shakey.”

Marie groaned, trying to shrug her off. “Please never say that again.”

“Only if you get up, like, right now.”

“Too early.”

“Come _on_ , Marie, it’s half ten.”

“I stand by my previous statement.”

“I’m back from the octarian thing.” Callie hoped that would manage to get through to her sleepy cousin, and it did.

“Okay, okay, I’m awake.” Marie emerged from her duvet cocoon at last, sitting up as a butterfly of sleep-chaotic hair. She rubbed at her eyes, yawning as she spoke. “Anything happen?”

“Yeah. I also learnt that telling Jake to stay home doesn’t work.” Callie gave a half-hearted laugh, and Marie rolled her eyes. Sitting at the edge of the mattress, Callie reached out to tie up her cousin’s hair; partially because she wanted to stall for more time to decide how to explain, and partially because it might deter Marie from just going back to sleep for the next three hours. “There… weren’t any octarians, technically, I guess.”

“ _Technically_?” Marie frowned. She held a hand up to the back of her head, checking if Callie had done her hairstyle correctly; almost perfect, apparently, she just had to pull the bow slightly wider. “I’m too tired for beating around the bush, Callie.”

“Rollo attacked us.”

“… What?” Marie responded slowly, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.

“At least, I’m pretty sure—no, I’m almost _certain_ it was him. Jake thought it was, and he knows his brother more than the both of us combined.” Folding her arms around herself, Callie swallowed to alleviate her dry throat before continuing. “He didn’t have the hypnoshades or anything, he just… he looked like he wanted to _kill_ me.”

Marie placed a hand on her shoulder, moving to sit next to her. “This is… _bad_. The octarians must have done something to him.”

“He stole one of the small zapfish too. He used a splashdown in the middle of the alley we were in and just ran off suddenly.” Callie shuddered. “I don’t think I’d have been strong enough to fight him off if he’d stayed.”

“Wait—Callie, you had your weapon out in the middle of town?” Marie’s tone suddenly changed to one of scolding. “That’s _illegal_! What if someone had seen you!?”

Callie huffed, a little upset that _this_ was what she was bringing up now. “What, would you rather we’d just let him kill us!?”

“ _No_! No, of course not.” Marie shook her head, eyes widening in horror just at the thought. “Just… I don’t know. This is a mess.” She took a deep breath, letting it out a few seconds later as a long sigh. “What are we gonna do, Cal? They’ve managed to turn Agent 4 against us!”

“I don’t know.” Marie was usually the one who _knew what to do_ in difficult situations, so hearing her sound so lost made Callie’s chest feel tight with fear. She felt a twinge of guilt, too; Marie had already been through this once, when the octarians had brainwashed Callie. _And as far as I know, I never left the octarian base, let alone attacked anyone other than in that big fight with Octavio._ “We can do _something_ , though, I’m sure.” Callie had no ideas on where to start, but perhaps positivity would help right now. “Things have always worked out before.”

“Yeah.” Marie gave a half-hearted smile, as if she didn’t fully believe they would this time.

 

* * *

 

Marie had been quiet ever since their conversation that morning; more than likely, she was trying to come up with some way they could resolve this, but the fact that she shared no plans meant it was unlikely she’d thought of one. Callie could tell it was bothering her, especially when she ended up absently picking at her food at lunch, and decided she needed to get serious about taking half of this burden as well.

“Maybe we should start with just… trying to clear out the closest domes for now,” she suggested. “We can work out how to save Agent 4 on the way. Maybe we’ll find some clues, or something.”

“What if we run into him, though?” Marie didn’t sound hopeful. “What are we supposed to do then?”

“I dunno. Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess?” Callie grinned, but was only met with a sigh.

Still, Callie’s plan was better than nothing, especially if the octarians were stealing their zapfish again. Later that day, they headed back to Octo Canyon, intending to check the domes for any sign of activity.

Much to their surprise, Jake was there when they arrived. He was using the dummies for target practice with the hero charger, easily hitting his mark if he took a moment to focus before firing, but when he switched quickly to a different target the shot flew right past and splattered the wall behind it.

“Oh. He came back,” Marie muttered quietly, her voice low enough that her words wouldn’t be heard, but Jake still noticed their arrival. He waved to them.

“Didn’t expect to see you here!” Callie waved back, evidently much better at being cheery than her cousin was – although that was nothing new. “Getting in some practice?”

“Yeah!” Jake nodded enthusiastically. “The dummies are a lot easier to hit than the octarians, though.”

_They don’t even move and he still misses them sometimes._ Callie bit the inside of her cheek. He was still so optimistic, even after what had happened that morning. “I’m sure you’ll be a sharp-shooter in no time! Just like Marie!”

Her cousin scoffed. Callie ignored her.

“Are we going to fight the octarians again?” Jake asked, clutching his weapon.

“ _We_ ,” Marie said meaningfully, nodding her head towards Callie, “are going to check the domes. _You_ can stay here and try to not get your butt kicked by inflatable dummies.”

“Oh.” He looked a little disappointed. Clearly he was eager to help out still, despite the terrible experience from yesterday. “Are we going to save Rollo soon?”

“I sure hope so, kid.”

“I can help! He might recognise me. He didn’t actually try to hurt me this morning.”

“I’m… not sure that’ll make much of a difference,” Callie said, her voice guarded. She didn’t really remember much from being brainwashed, but from the sound of things, she definitely hadn’t been concerned for anyone during that time, not even Marie. Although, he did have a point. Rollo had certainly seemed to change for the worst when he saw her…

“It might do! I think – I know I can get through to him somehow. He’s my brother, after all!” Jake gave a determined nod. “He’d never hurt me.”

Callie wasn’t sure exactly which part of his sentence caused it, but Marie snapped.

“You think this is like some kind of movie?” Her voice was harsh, as was her glare. “Can’t you take _anything_ seriously!? If the octarians have brainwashed him, you won’t be able to stop him with some petty speech just because you’re his brother! He’s a _hostage_ to them, and we don’t have a clue _what_ they’re doing with him!”

Jake instinctively recoiled at being shouted at. Tears began to well in his eyes but he blinked them away. “That’s why we have to get him back as soon as possible!”

Marie held the glare for a few seconds longer. Then she seemed to relax slightly, sighing and shaking her head. “Sure, kid. Just don’t underestimate the octarians.” She turned to head for the second part of Tentakeel Outpost. “If you really want to help, you keep practicing.”

“Okay.” Jake nodded, looking a little surprised that Marie had changed tone so quickly.

Honestly, Callie was too. _He really does want to help us save his brother. I saw that this morning, and maybe Marie finally does too._ She put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “We can do this! Do you have a splat charger at home?”

Jake shook his head. “Only my jet squelcher… and a splattershot jr. somewhere, I think.”

“Alright.” Perhaps it was time he had some better targets to practice with, in a place where he wouldn’t get killed by the enemy if his aim was off. Callie made a mental note to go and see Sheldon once they were done today. “Meet me here tomorrow morning. 9AM.”

His eyes sparkled with excitement and curiosity – and then he grimaced at the early time, but only for a moment. He nodded enthusiastically. “Okay!”

“Great! Oh, and don’t worry about waiting around ‘til we get back. I think Marie’s in one of her moods today.”

“I _can_ hear you, Callie!” Marie called from somewhere beyond the arch.

“I know you can, ya big grump!” Callie stuck out her tongue even though Marie couldn’t see her. It made Jake laugh, if anything. She gave him a double thumbs-up. “We got this! Good luck, squiddo!”

Knowing Marie would actually be understandably irritated if she wasted too much time here, she raced for the shack to retrieve her roller, which she’d actually remembered to put back this time. Despite all the terrible discoveries they’d made recently, Callie was determined to try and remain as optimistic as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashback time!!  
> The familial bond between Callie and Marie is Very Important... I enjoy writing about them a lot.


	5. Training Mode

Jake clutched the unusual-looking weapon against his chest as he stared up at the countless screens in the lobby. Most of the green ones were in action currently; the city was bustling with turf wars as usual, which might be the perfect opportunity to get more practice without the risk of tarnishing his rank.

This wouldn’t be the same as fighting the octarians, though – and if there was a more experienced charger on the other team, he’d be an easy target. Jake found himself wishing for the umpteenth time that the Octo Canyon base had some kind of hero squelcher. It did not.

He didn’t want to return until he’d improved at least a little, though. He didn’t want Marie to shout at him again. It wasn’t _his_ fault he wasn’t used to high-risk battles, or fighting dangerous creatures.

At least Callie had been nice enough to slip him this weapon to practice with. “I had Sheldon add some slight modifications, so its stats are close enough to a regular charger it should pass under the radar,” she’d said with a bright grin as she shoved the large weapon into his hands that morning.

It _was_ a pretty cool-looking charger, all things considered. That was enough to convince him to brave the risk of getting banned for having what was _probably_ an illegal weapon.

He was still a little worried about what the other inklings would think, though. Perhaps he should try to come up with an explanation as to where he got it from. _I guess I could say Rollo made it for me. Everyone knows him as the squid with the fancy roller…_

As the lobby started to clear, with another turf match gaining eight players, Jake approached one of the screens to sign in. Moray Towers was in the map rotation right now… and Shellendorf. He wasn’t very good at Shellendorf. A few of the people on his friends list were playing turf war right now, so maybe he should join one of their rooms and hope they didn’t mind if he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn at first. _Daps is playing, maybe I should join her…_

He hadn’t noticed the squid sneaking along the floor towards him – not even when she let out a squeak of surprise at an inkling accidentally stepping on her in the crowded building. Bursting out into inkling form, she lunged for him and grabbed his shoulder. “ _Jake_!”

A few inklings turned heads at the embarrassingly loud scream he let out, and he had to fumble to avoid dropping the weapon. The events from the past few days had made him jumpy… “Spla-a-ash,” he whined, recognising his friend a few seconds slower than he usually would have done. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Splash immediately broke out into a fit of giggles. “Aww, did I scare yo— ** _WOOOAAAAAAAH_**! What is _that_!?” Her eyebrows almost disappeared under her fringe.

Her outburst startled him again, and it took a moment for Jake to realise her sparkling gaze was resting on the weapon in his arms. “A… splat charger?” He wasn’t exactly _lying_ …

“Come on, Jakey, I’ve seen splat chargers before and they don’t look like _that_!” Splash huffed, puffing out her cheeks. “Oh, oh! Is it, like, a fancy one? Y’know, like your bro has that really cool roller!” She clapped her hands together. “Where did you get it?”

“He made it for me,” Jake explained, forcing a grin and hoping she wouldn’t see through the lie. It sounded pretty reasonable, right?

“ _Whoa_ ,” Splash gawked. “Man, you’re so lucky! Your big brother is so _cool_!”

“Yeah… he is.” The smile faltered for a moment. As soon as he felt his lip quiver, Jake hurriedly shook himself. “A-anyway, what are you up to, Splash? Are you here for turf war?”

“I was gonna see if I could sneak into Daps’ room,” Splash said with a cheeky grin. She held up her weapon; a splash-o-matic with the Neo logo stickered on the side. “This set even has the same special as her weapon does! She’s _totally_ gonna think I’m cool when she sees I can use it!”

“I’m sure she will,” Jake lied. He could never tell what Daps was thinking. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the icon of their more experienced friend turn from green to grey on the screen. “It looks like she’s left the room she was in, anyway.”

“ _Aww_.” Splash’s face fell, and for a moment Jake feared she might start crying. A second later she hopped back to life, a bright grin stretching her face once more. “Oh well! I can show her later. Are you here to try out your cool new weapon?”

“I guess.” He stared at the charger in his hands. It _did_ look pretty cool, especially when the body of it reflected the lobby’s colourful lights. Jake still wasn’t sure if he wanted to take it into turf war with a bunch of strangers… but Splash was here now, and that gave him an idea. “Hey, if you’re not busy now, would you mind helping me with something?”

“Maaaaybe. You gotta actually tell me what you want before I can agree to it.” Splash stuck her tongue out at him.

“Oh, right—I, ah… I need to train against a specific weapon. Do you think we could do a 1-on-1 match, or something? I might not run into one if I join a random turf war.”

“If it’s something I have, then sure!” Splash nodded. Her expression turned uncharacteristically serious. “It better not be a sploosh-o-matic.”

“No way. Do you have a splat roller?”

“Of course I do! That’s, like, one of the first weapons Sheldon will let new squids have.”  She huffed a laugh, as if he was asking an obvious question. Her expression soon turned to confusion. “Wait, why don’t you ask Rollo? I know I’m, like, totally awesome and everything, but he’s waaaaaay better at using rollers than I am.”

“He’s… busy.” Jake shook his head. He wished he could confide in the real reason, but Marie had made him swear not to tell a soul what happened. Marie already didn’t seem to like him much; he didn’t want to make her hate him even more.

“Wow. He’s too cool even for his little brother? Cold.” Splash’s words stung a little, given the situation, but she didn’t know. “Alright! I will be your honorary sister for the day!” She grabbed his arm, tugging him towards the door. “They’re using The Reef for league battles right now, but Port Mackerel should be free!”

 

* * *

 

The salty sea breeze apparently didn’t help one to aim a charger. Jake was able to ink a lot of turf, especially in the long pathways of Port Mackerel, but any time he tried to fire at Splash she’d easily dip away into the ink and swim out of reach – and then suddenly she’d be behind him, and he’d get squished by a roller and teleported back to the spawn point.

“You gotta check your six!” Splash yelled from across the map.

“What does _that_ mean!?”

“I have no idea, but it sounds important!”

In the distance, two inklings watched from atop a cargo container. One of them lay flat on her stomach, a pair of binoculars practically glued to her eyes and shades pushed up onto her head to make room for them, while the other simply sat casually.

“Really, Callie? You gave him a war weapon to use in turf?”

“Oh, please!” Callie scoffed with a smile, removing the binoculars from her face. “I just had Sheldon stick some extra parts on a regular splat charger and told Jake it was modded. He won’t kill anyone with that thing.”

“Wow. Devious.” The slightest smirk made its way onto Marie’s face. She plucked the sunglasses from her cousin’s hair, putting them on herself instead to stop the glare of the water getting in her eyes, and not bothering to mention that they could see the training match well enough from here without the need for the binoculars.

“You sure we’re doing the right thing, Mar?” Callie asked, wincing as she saw Jake get hit by a vertical swing. “I know he’s the same age as we were when we helped Agent 3, but… he’s basically just a kid. And he’s not very good. Are you sure we shouldn’t try and get one of the Rank Xs to help?”

“We can’t drag anyone else into this.” Marie sighed, wrapping her arms around her knees. “Most of Inkopolis doesn’t even know the octarians are living beneath us. Besides, he’s Agent 4’s brother. He has the motive to save him.”

“Yeah, but motive isn’t enough to save his own ass if he can’t aim.” Callie, starting to lose interest in watching their new apprentice after seeing him get splatted by a curling bomb, propped up her chin with one arm. “Maybe we should just go by ourselves. I know we’re not exactly pro fighters, but you at least know how to hit someone with a charger.”

“I know, but…” She trailed off. Despite the shades, the uncertainty was still visible in her eyes. Callie was right; it _was_ dangerous, even for them, and despite being a pretty good sniper, Marie could barely handle a close-range fight. Years of being groomed into idols had included multiple others trying to drill into the two of them that they needed to remain in inkling form at all times for their image – something Callie had basically ignored, but had left Marie struggling to form a proper squid shape if she attempted to transform now, something that usually didn’t happen until an inkling was much older. A malformed squid couldn’t swim as fluidly, and an important skill in a fight was actually being able to escape if things got rough.

“You trust this kid more not to hurt him?” That was a complete guess from Callie, but Marie had to admit, with no more than a defeated sigh, that this was also a reason. An evil smirk started to form on Callie’s face. “Aw, Marie, it’s almost like you _like_ him.”

“What? No!” Marie shot her an incredulous glance. “I’m gay, Callie. And in case _you_ forgot, so is he.” She could still remember a week or so after they’d saved Callie, when her cousin had made an embarrassingly obvious attempt to ask Agent 4 on a date, and he’d awkwardly fumbled for a polite way to turn her down before Marie had stepped in to point out that he was only into guys. Poor Callie was such a hopeless romantic, but she’d bounced back from that brief disappointment quickly, gushing over the cute girl working at the supermarket later that day when she went on the grocery run. That was a surprisingly regular occurrence.

“Yeah, yeah.” Callie rolled her eyes, puffing out her cheeks in a huff at the reminder. “I forgot you’re totally into Agent 3.”

“Shut up, Callie.”

“I bet when I catch you staring off into space sometimes you’re thinking about her.”

Marie placed her hands over her ears. “I’m not listening to you.”

Callie continued to watch her with a shit-eating grin. “I wonder if Gramps is showing her your _baby_ _photos_.”

“Shut _up_ , _Callie_!”

“I thought you weren’t listening to me.” Callie’s voice was broken up by her snickering. “You’re _blushing_.”

Marie, not wanting to give Callie the ammunition of a response, just grumbled quietly and turned her attention back to the reason they were out here in the first place. “Oh—hey, he actually landed a hit.”

“He _did_?” Callie had the binoculars back against her face in an instant. “Are you sure? I missed it.”

Over at Port Mackerel, Splash was waiting for the roller to reappear at her spawn, jumping up and down and cheering despite the fact that she’d just been shot out of the sky. At least Jake’s friend was supportive, even if their splat ratio was currently ten to one – eleven to two, if you included bombs.

“Yeah. She was about to hit him directly with the roller, though.”

“Well, at least he didn’t miss this time, right?” Callie gave a motion which was probably supposed to be a one-handed shrug.

Marie nodded slowly. “It’s a start. I guess.”

 

* * *

 

Moray Towers flashed up on the big screen behind them, the last map of the League rotations. “One time I accidentally dodge-rolled off the buildings here,” Pearl announced, holding her hands up in an over-exaggerated shrug and kicking one short leg over the other. “The seagulls thought I was one of them!”

Her gaze darted to her co-host, waiting for her reaction. Marina had been oddly quiet for their entire announcement, scratching the turntables to change the presentation a lot faster than usual, and occasionally glancing around as if looking for something. Even now she stood a little stiffly, and when her eyes met Pearl’s they seemed to betray a look of panic.

“That’s nice, Pearl,” she said with only a brief hesitation. Her hands twitched nervously against the turntable.

 _Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong, but we need to play it off ‘cuz we’re live. Better wrap this up fast!_ Pearl hopped up from her seat. “That’s all we’ve got time for! Until next time…”

They both recited their catchphrase in unison, doing the trademark poses with it. “Don’t get cooked; stay off the hook!”

The red light on the camera flickered off and the jellyfish in control of it raised his arm to signal they were off-air. Nary had a millisecond passed before Marina wrestled off her headphones, wincing and rubbing one ear.

“What’s up, ‘Rina?” Pearl asked, not bothering to try and mask her slight concern. “You got a headache?”

“No… no, Pearlie, I’m fine,” Marina gave a sweet smile, one of the ones that always made Pearl’s heart do a somersault. She looked down at the headphones in her hands, running a thumb over the cushioning on one side. “My headphones are just acting up for some reason, that’s all.”

“That’s what you were so jumpy about?” _Talk about an over-reaction!_ Pearl didn’t dare say that part out loud; she’d learnt a long time ago that if she didn’t hold back her snark a little, she _would_ end up upsetting Marina, and she didn’t want to do that. “Have you been playing music during the broadcasts again?” The background music in the studio did get annoying when you had to listen to it every single day, multiple times…

“Maybe you should just… here, listen.” Marina held out the headset towards her. When Pearl carefully took it from her grasp, she added hastily, “don’t put it too near your ear, though.”

Throwing a confused look at her co-host – and girlfriend, though they tried to keep that information quiet from the general public – Pearl held one of the speakers near the side of her head.

Immediately she was hit by one of the most terrible, grating noises she’d ever heard.

_sssssshhhhhhkkkkkeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE **EEEEEEEEEEE**_

Pearl recoiled from the sound. “You had that in your ear for the _whole_ _announcement_!?”

“Yep,” Marina gave a half-hearted laugh as she gently took her headset back.

“Why didn’t you—” _just take them off_? No, that was a stupid question, Pearl already knew the answer. Marina was very self-conscious about her ears, with them being the octoling round instead of pointed like inklings’. Even now, when they were in the studio with a large window visible to the public, she’d tried to cover them with her hair. “You are tough as nails, Marina. Holy carp. That sounds like when I move my phone too close to a mic.”

“I thought something in the equipment might be messing with them, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary on set.” Marina experimentally held the headset up to her ear once more; she let out a small sigh of relief, and slid it back on over her head. “It’s stopped now, at least.”

“Has it happened before?” Pearl tilted her head to one side, setting her hair swaying. Seeing Marina confused over any kind of machine felt a little unnerving these days; in her mind, the octoling could pull just about any miracle. Touch a rock and make it fly, maybe.

“Only in the past few days. I hope they’re not dying on me.” The thought brought a frown to her face; Marina had made these headphones herself with a base and octarian tech, and it was unusual for something so simple she’d built to give up quickly.

“Well, I’m sure you can fix ‘em. You are a techie dork, after all!” Pearl grinned, placing a hand on Marina’s arm.

Marina pouted at her claim. “I am _not_.”

Pearl childishly stuck her tongue out, leaning against Marina’s side with a force that would’ve pushed her over if she hadn’t been so tall. “You’re _my_ techie dork.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first 2 sections of this chapter were actually the second part of the story I ever wrote (after the very beginning scene), since the first half of the story was written out of order. It also features a cameo of Splash (and Daps who is briefly mentioned) who belong to my friend [Finch.](https://twitter.com/fincling) They don't reappear again at any point in the story but they sure did contribute.
> 
> Also, just for the record; my Agent 3 (Faye) is 18, Marie doesn't have a crush on a 16 year old. (Rollo/Agent 4 is 20, Agent 8 is 16, Jake technically isn't an agent but we've already seen he's 17).


	6. Underestimate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: there's some blood in this chapter.

Jake sighed, rolling his shoulders and stretching out his arms as he stood off to the side in the sheltered area outside Deca Tower. Another day of lugging the charger around turf war and trying to not get splatted repeatedly, but at least, after almost a week, he _was_ starting to improve. He managed to get six splats in one match, and only half of them were from bombs and the stingray.

The ‘modded weapon’ charade had fallen through pretty quickly when he met up with Callie again after that first day to give it back to her; this was a totally different weapon than the one he’d been given in Octo Canyon, just a regular charger with some extra parts and fancy paint, but Callie had been nice enough to let him keep it; ‘it might charge slower and do less damage, but it still aims the same, and that’s what you need to practice, right?’.

Well, she wasn’t wrong, and it _was_ working. He was definitely starting to feel more comfortable with a charger now, to the point where taking it into turf war with randomly selected teams didn’t scare him as much. At least he was getting paid for it.

He _had_ noticed some familiar names on the ranked room lists, though, and decided not to push his luck. Delilah rarely ever set foot in a non-ranked match, but Harper often jumped into turf war, _especially_ if there were friends playing – she was an addict to squid partying, and people would understandably get mad at her for messing around in a ranked battle. Jake didn’t know the other members of his brother’s league team super well, but he’d befriended Harper enough to have her number and didn’t want to have a face-to-face encounter where he’d have to find some excuse for why he’d had her blocked since last week.

They were bound to have noticed Rollo’s absence, and the longer Jake could put off running into any of them, the better. He didn’t have a good explanation to give them, and he could hardly tell them the truth.

Perhaps he could return later, if he could make a good guess as to when they’d be done here. Jake didn’t want to risk meeting them, or them noticing he was here, but he _did_ need money to survive on his own, and he was still too afraid of Grizzco after his last attempt at Salmon Run. Although, now that he thought about it, fighting the salmonids wasn’t too different to the octarians…

_I’ll… think about it._ Grizzco definitely paid out more than turf war did; he’d just have to convince Mr Grizz to actually let him back in. Jake wasn’t looking forward to that.

In the meantime, he might as well head home and try to put together a slightly-late lunch. It was almost 2PM now, and after playing matches all morning, he was _starving_.

Jake knew the route home well enough by now, after walking it countless times in the few months he’d lived in Inkopolis. The square was a decent walk from home, but there were a couple of supermarket outlets between the two, and he considered taking a quick detour into one to get some more food. He was starting to get sick of eating sandwiches for every meal. If only he knew how to cook…

His food thoughts were interrupted – thank goodness, his stomach wouldn’t shut up – by a strange noise. An odd, muffled cry that Jake realised, with a feeling of dread, sounded familiar.

_A zapfish._

Lunch could wait.

Jake was instantly on alert, trying to listen for where the sound was coming from. He instinctively reached for the case on his back – a different shape than he was used to, holding a charger instead of a jet squelcher – before deciding that, no, pulling that thing out in the back alleys of Inkopolis probably wasn’t a good idea. Nobody had seen him the last time he had a weapon in a public area, but that had been early in the morning, not in the busiest hours of the day.

Besides, a charger was a lot more dangerous than a jet squelcher.

Shaking his head, Jake took off at a run in the direction he’d heard the zapfish. He needed to catch them. A small part of his brain told him that he should probably try to message Callie for help, but that would take _time_ and the thief might get away. He had to do this on his own.

The zapfish’s cries remained quiet and muffled, but they were getting louder. Was he catching up, or was it heading in his direction?

He soon found out.

Turning a corner almost sent him straight into the culprit, and they hesitated only briefly before trying to shove past him.

_Rollo._

Jake froze.

_It’s Rollo!_

_He’s here!_

_I have to stop him!_

“Rollo, wait!” Jake reached out, grabbing onto his brother’s wrist as the older inkling tried to push him aside. The sudden anchor nearly dragged Jake after him, but he braced himself and tried to hold his brother back. “ _Stop_! Don’t leave again!”

Rollo’s gaze snapped to him, ignoring the squirming of the zapfish, which was trapped in a bag attached to the weapon case on his back. _He doesn’t have the roller out. He can’t attack me here._ His gaze was still cold and unfamiliar. Rollo tried to yank his arm out of Jake’s grip, but he was determined, grabbing on with his other hand too to try and keep him in place.

“Rollo, _stop_ ,” Jake pressed, hoping his words would get through somehow. They _had_ to. The real Rollo, the one who would recognise Jake, must have still been in there _somewhere_ , no matter what the octarians had done to him. “ _Please_. I don’t know what they did to you, but we can find a way to—”

Jake was immediately silenced by a strong force smacking into the side of his face.

He lost his hold. Air swept past. The ground rushed at him and slammed against his side.

_He hit me._

_Rollo punched me._

Footsteps thundered in his ears but he was too stunned to move.

“R-Rollo…” he voice came out quiet and shaky. His face hurt. A hand instinctively moved to his left cheek and found it felt warm and swollen.

_I thought he wouldn’t hurt me._

Now he was gone. Again.

Resisting the urge to curl up and cry, Jake shakily pushed himself up. He heard something drip onto the ground. _Don’t cry, don’t cry…_

… _I’m not crying._

_Oh, shrimp._

His hand flew back to his face, and he winced at the pain. When he moved it away again, it was coloured by a trail of dark blue.

Okay. Now he was crying.

Jake didn’t know what to do. He was on the ground, in an alley, alone, with blood running from his nose. _Great! Fantastic!_

And he hadn’t been able to stop Rollo. He was gone, along with the zapfish the octarians had made him steal.

_Get up._

He had to be brave. He had to be. That was the only way he could be of any use in trying to get his brother back.

Taking a deep breath – through his mouth, to avoid inhaling a ton of blood – Jake sat up, keeping a hand held against his face. Fortunately his glasses had just been displaced slightly, not broken, and despite hitting the ground his phone hadn’t been damaged either. He blinked the tears out of his eyes to make the screen less blurry as he shakily typed out a one-handed message, spelling a few words wrong in the process.

[14:05] I sw Rolo

[14:05] he attked me

Fortunately he got a reply back almost immediately. Callie had her phone on hand at all times, it seemed.

[14:05] oh cod

[14:05] are you okay?

 [14:06] kina

[14:06] we just got back from one of the domes, can you make it to the canyon?

[14:06] thnk so

[14:06] okay. we’ll wait for you, okay?

[14:05] ok

As to how he was going to get across town like this… well, maybe he’d have to just try and be stealthy.

 

* * *

 

Stealth wasn’t easy when you were trying to stop your blood from dripping onto the ground every few steps. Jake tried to keep his gaze low, avoiding possible eye contact with anyone as he covered the lower half of his face with both hands. He could taste the blood now, and it wasn’t nice. _This is awful._ It might have been starting to slow, maybe, but that didn’t really make a whole lot of difference. He still had to get across the square, from The Shoal to the side streets of Ammo Knights where the drain leading to Octo Canyon was.

“Jake?”

_Uh oh._ A familiar voice. This was bad. _Ignore him, maybe he’ll think he’s mistaken…_

No such luck. An inkling overtook him, jogging to a halt and holding out a hand towards him as if they thought he might keel over any second. _Do I really look that bad?_

“What on earth happened to you?” The friendly inkling’s eyes held a look of concern, shaded by the denim cap covering his bowl-cut hair.

“Nothing,” Jake said hastily. The movement caused another drop of blood to slither free, and he briefly watched it fall to the ground before his gaze darted sheepishly back to the man in front of him.

_Chance._ Jake didn’t know him well since he was another inkling who mostly frequented ranked battles; just that his main weapon was a slosher – which had earned him the nickname of ‘Bucket Boy’ among a few others, sometimes intended in a friendly way and sometimes not – and that he was a pretty high rank. S+9, if it hadn’t changed since he last heard.

And also, Rollo had a pretty hopeless crush on him. Jake… didn’t really understand his brother’s tastes, but Chance seemed nice, at the very least.

“Did you get into a fight?” Chance persisted, but when Jake seemed reluctant to answer he shook his head. “Hold on—wait right here. I’ll be back.”

“Wha…” Aaaaaand he was gone. Racing off somewhere. What was he doing? Jake half expected him to return with a slosher all ‘here, catch the blood in this’, or something.

Jake considered maybe just continuing on his way now that Chance had left, instead of awkwardly standing in the street and hoping nobody else noticed him. A moment later, he noticed the older inkling in the distance; he was talking to Crusty Sean through the window of the Crust Bucket, while a few other inklings nearby glared at him for cutting the line. _What’s he going to do, get a sandwich? Is that supposed to help?_

Sean nodded, saying something Jake was too far away to hear – and he could’ve sworn the tiger prawn glanced in his direction as he offered Chance a couple of paper napkins. _Oh. I see._

Chance hurried back towards him, apologising to the waiting customers as he passed and causing their irritation to fade when they realised he wasn’t being rude. When he caught up to Jake, he held the napkins out to him. “Here. I didn’t have any tissues on me and the nearest toilets are in the lobby.”

Jake didn’t fancy making his way through a crowded area in his current condition, so that thought was definitely appreciated. “Thanks,” he mumbled, his voice only just audible as he reached out to carefully take the napkins from Chance without accidentally smearing blood on him in the process. Jake held one of them to his face and kept his gaze on the ground, not wanting to make eye contact when he knew he’d only see pity reflected back. He probably looked like a complete mess.

“No prob. Did you get hit by someone?” Chance asked quietly, trying not to draw attention. “It looks like they socked you pretty hard.”

Jake had no idea how gullible Chance was, but he might as well bluff it off and find out. He could hardly tell him that his brainwashed brother had punched him in the face while stealing part of the city’s energy source. “I just… fell. Onto something. With my face.”

“Ouch,” Chance winced. He seemed to believe him. “Been there before. That must have hurt.”

Jake had to resist the urge to laugh. Fortunately the napkin held to his face covered that up. “It did. I, uh… I gotta be somewhere, so thanks for the help, but…”

“Oh! Right. Well, make sure you walk carefully,” Chance said with a smile, patting his shoulder. “And make sure you get that checked out if the bleeding doesn’t stop in a few minutes.”

“Yeah. Sure.” Now he could finally escape. Jake turned to continue on his path, hoping Chance wouldn’t think too much into where he was going.

“Wait—before you go,” Chance interrupted, reaching out a hand towards him but thankfully not making any physical attempt to stop him. He drew his arms back, pressing his fingers together as if he hadn’t quite decided what he was going to say yet. “I, ah… I haven’t seen your brother for a while, and Delilah asked if I’d seem him earlier so I guess his team hasn’t either – is he okay?”

Jake froze. He didn’t know how to respond to that. What was he supposed to _say_?

“He’s… busy.” _That sounds dumb. It’s Rollo; what would he be_ busy _with?_ “I-I think. I don’t know. I haven’t seen him around much recently.” At least that was partially true.

“Man, he really must be busy.” Chance gave a wry smile. “Hopefully he has more free time soon. We all know how much he loves to play matches with that fancy roller of his!”

“Yeah. Hopefully.” Jake excused himself with a quick smile and nod, hoping it wasn’t obvious that he was trying to stop his eyes flooding with tears again.

 

* * *

 

**_SssssssSSSHHHHHKKKKKKKKKKKK_ **

Marina flinched, hands instinctively flying to her ears at the grating sound. When that didn’t help at all – made it worse, if anything – she pulled off her headphones, sighing as she tucked her ears under her hair. _Again? Really?_ At least it wasn’t during an announcement this time. There was just under an hour until the next one, so hopefully her headset would stop playing up by then.

“Headphones again?” Pearl asked, not looking up from her phone. The easily-recognisable sounds of Squid Jump chimed from the screen. She was particularly bored today, it seemed.

“Yeah.” Marina huffed out another sigh, wanting nothing more than to just… flop against the table and bury her head in her arms, but she wanted to at least try to retain her composure in the wide-windowed studio. This sound was starting to frustrate her; it kept starting up at random times during the past week, and as far as she could tell there wasn’t anything that should be causing it. She’d even tried taking her headset apart last night and hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary. “I just wish I could work out why they’re doing this, y’know?”

“Uh-huh— _dammit_! I almost beat my high score.” Sinking dejectedly into her chair as the _game over_ sound played, Pearl dropped her phone onto the table with slight over-emphasis. She folded her arms. “Maybe going too near _that_ place messed them up somehow.”

“I guess…” There _had_ been a lot of strong magnetic forces coming from the test facility, and it was only a few days after they’d helped Agent 8 escape the place – and save the world – when Marina’s headphones had started making that awful noise. But… why would it be her _headphones_ of all things that got messed up by it? All the rest of her equipment was fine.

Thinking of Agent 8 – or Eight, as she’d chosen to adopt Pearl’s nickname as a true one since she’d never been able to recall what her original one was, and had no real desire to anymore – Marina found herself gazing out of the studio window. They hadn’t seen their new octoling friend much since she gained her freedom, but Eight always made it a point to stop by and wave at them whenever she passed the building. After a few incidents with security, Pearl had needed to try and explain to Eight that no, she probably shouldn’t knock on the window to get their attention. She was a good kid, but still very new to the inkling society, much like the other octolings who had been surfacing recently.

It was nice, knowing they had a place here now. Knowing that _she_ had a place here, with Pearl, and she wouldn’t ever have to go back to her old life.

Pearl, bored of her mobile game, had decided to take up Marina’s temporary hobby of staring out of the window as well. She caught her co-host’s attention with a low whistle. “Damn, that kid got messed up pretty bad.”

“Huh?” Marina cast a glance at her, trying to work out what she was talking about. She followed Pearl’s gaze; she was looking at someone standing near the lobby. A short cyan-coloured inkling was standing in the shadow of the tower, watching someone out of sight with a confused expression that was marred by a swollen cheek. “Oh, poor thing.” From the way he was covering his face with his hands, it looked like his nose was bleeding. “You think someone hit him?”

“Takes a pretty cruel person to hit a guy with glasses,” Pearl shrugged, sitting back in her chair as if she wasn’t too bothered by what she’d seen. “Life sucks sometimes. Maybe he had a run-in with a bully or something.”

Marina was about to suggest maybe they send someone from the staff out to help, but just as the thought was about to leave her mouth, another inkling ran up to him with a handful of napkins. Perhaps they were a friend, or just a kind stranger, but he’d probably be okay without intervention. “I’m glad that doesn’t seem to happen very often around here.”

 

* * *

 

Fortunately, the nosebleed had stopped by the time Jake reached the grate. As he binned the stained napkins, he wondered if he should have tried to sneak past the lobby crowds and into the bathrooms so that he could have a chance to clean himself up, but he was still shaken up and probably wouldn’t go unnoticed – and if he took much longer, the others might think he’d either been attacked again or collapsed somewhere on his way to the canyon.

Travelling through the pipes was nowhere near as scary as it had been the first time – well, the first time he’d come this way on his own accord – but transforming into a squid to pass through the gaps aggravated the injury, and when he reformed on the platform above the canyon his face began to sting again, and he felt another drop of blood run down his face. _Ow…_

A surprised squeak reverberated around the still air. “Oh my _cod_ , are you okay?” Callie was waiting, as she said she’d be, and upon noticing how much of a bloody mess he was she was at his side in an instant, awkwardly half-holding her arms towards him as if she wanted to offer support but was reluctant to become a part of said bloody mess.

“Y-yeah.” Jake self-consciously wiped a hand under his nose, inevitably smearing himself with more blue, and began to regret not attempting to clean himself up before he arrived. Still, it wasn’t as if he could make any worse of an impression than he already had.

To his surprise, Marie was still here, too, although whether she’d stayed because of concern or just because she didn’t want to leave without her cousin, Jake didn’t know. She cleared a cushion off the bench in front of the cabin, to save it from blood, and pointed to the seat. “Sit. We don’t want you to go fainting on us.”

_It was just a nosebleed._ The world did feel a little more fuzzy than usual, though, so Jake decided not to complain, making his way towards the bench as Callie watched him like a hawk.

Once he was sat down, she seemed to take that as a sign to relax, as if sitting was a miracle cure somehow. “I’ll go find something to help,” she stated, vanishing into the cabin.

Left out here alone with Marie and remembering the last time he’d been in such a situation, Jake cast a nervous glance up at her; thankfully she wasn’t bearing the cold glare for once, searching her pockets until she threw an unused tissue at him. “You’re a right mess.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Jake responded with a hint of sarcasm, hoping she’d realise it was a joke and not take it as him talking back to her.

The hint of a smirk tugged at Marie’s face before her expression turned more serious. She looked at him for a long moment; specifically, the left side of his face where he’d been hit. “Looks painful, but not serious. You’re almost certainly going to get a black eye, though.”

“Great.” Jake sighed as he attempted to clean himself up. Most of the blood had dried by this point, and he wondered if the ancient-looking shack had a sink.

“Hey, at least you’ll look totally hardcore for a few days!” Callie reappeared with a grin and something in her hand that looked like a bag of ice.

“Callie, how the—what!?” Marie shot her an incredulous look, gaze switching from her face to the object in her hand. “How did you…?”

“Tiny freezer! I brought it out here a couple weeks ago to store ice cream in, but having regular ice seems to have come in handy too.” Callie shrugged as she wrapped up the bag of ice in an old tea towel.

“Huh. To think you were actually hiding something useful under all that mess.”

“This is why you should leave me in charge more often,” Callie said with a grin, dropping herself down next to Jake on the bench with a force that made the entire seat shudder and, thankfully more gently, holding the makeshift ice pack to his swollen cheek.

“ _Ow_!” he still recoiled from the sudden contact. It made his face hurt, and it was _freezing_.

“Sorry!” She moved away instinctively at his outburst of pain, then decided to hold out the wrapped ice to him instead. “Here, maybe you should do it yourself. Press this against the swollen area, okay?”

“Okay,” he nodded weakly, taking the ice and tenderly holding it against his face. The pain and chill wasn’t such a shock when he was actually prepared for it.

“Alright, now that you’re not in danger of turning into a balloon, can you tell us what happened?” Marie prompted, leaning against the wall since there was no room for her on the bench. “You said you were attacked by Agent 4, correct?”

“Um… sorta.” Jake shuffled his feet, scraping lines on the earth. He recounted his short tale, of how he’d heard the zapfish and found Rollo, and when he tried to stop him he’d been punched in the face. He kept his gaze fixed on the ground, afraid of what he’d see if he made eye contact with either of them.

“And you thought you could stop him from escaping by… holding his arm.” Marie had that condescending tone in her voice; the one she always seemed to hold when she thought he’d done something stupid. In all fairness, he probably had, but that didn’t make him feel any better.

“He didn’t have the roller out,” Jake mumbled quietly. “I didn’t think he’d _punch_ me.”

“I _told_ you not to underestimate them,” Marie said with an exasperated sigh. Her tone changed quickly when she spoke again, and though Jake wasn’t watching, he had the feeling Callie might have exchanged a look with her. “Did you see where he went?”

Silently, and wishing he’d recovered fast enough to follow his brother or at least pay more attention to where he’d been heading, Jake gave a small shake of his head.

“Well… at least we know he’s still okay,” Callie added optimistically.

“I wouldn’t exactly call being brainwashed _okay_ ,” Marie countered. “He’s still alive, though, and well enough to be… stealing the zapfish, I guess.”

“It’s really weird.” Callie folded her arms, and when Jake lowered the ice to cast a glance at her, she had a confused expression. “They brainwashed him just to make him steal some zapfish? Wouldn’t it have been easier just to do that themselves?”

“Yeah. Something doesn’t seem right. Unless they’re just trying to put a bad name on one of Inkopolis’ heroes, but nobody even knows what happened in the first place.” Marie frowned, brow furrowed in thought. “I suppose we just have to keep getting the zapfish back and hope we work out how to reverse whatever they’ve done to him.”

“ _Uugh_ ,” Callie groaned, her back thudding against the wall. “It takes up so much _time_ , though. This would be so much less annoying if we didn’t also have work.”

“This is why you record ahead. More free time for saving the world.” Marie took her phone from her pocket, checking the time. “Speaking of, I should probably head to the studio. The more I get done now, the more days I can have off for cleaning up this mess.”

“Fair enough, miss workaholic,” Callie said, sticking out her tongue. “I’ll leave some leftovers for you so you don’t end up forgetting dinner again.”

“I can help!” Jake burst out suddenly. “With—with getting the zapfish back,” he specified, clearing up the very confused looks he was given. _I’ve been practicing with the charger. I can do better this time…!_

To his disappointment, Marie only gave a wry smile. “We don’t need any other small creatures to rescue from the octarian domes, thanks.”

Jake huffed at her joke, a little offended by the comparison. “You won’t need to _rescue_ me!”

“I’ll believe that when I see it. Keep practicing, kid, and maybe you’ll actually be able to face an octocopter someday.”

Marie waved over her shoulder as she left, receiving a “see ya later!” from Callie and an unseen sulky glare from Jake.

“She’s just trying to make sure you stay safe.” Callie guided the ice back to his cheek, trying to encourage him to keep holding it there. She cast a quick glance at the grate in the distance, as if to check her cousin was gone now that she was talking about her. “I know she seems like kind of a meanie-pants sometimes, but she has everyone’s best interest at heart.”

_She doesn’t believe I can be any use to them in the domes,_ Jake sighed quietly to himself. _And neither do you._ He didn’t dare say his thoughts out loud, though; even if Callie didn’t have high hopes for his skills, at least she was actually _nice_ to him, and he didn’t want to risk changing that.

She watched his silent response with a half-hearted smile. “Want me to walk you home?”

“Huh?” Jake startled at the unexpected question, giving her a slightly dumbfounded look. Mostly because, well, he wasn’t sure if he wanted a cool celebrity to see the borderline _mess_ he and Rollo lived in.

“Relax, you don’t have to invite me in or anything,” Callie laughed, waving her hands dismissively as she guessed what he was thinking. “You’re less likely to have random strangers approaching you if you’re not alone, that’s all.”

_Ohh._ That made sense. With the swollen cheek and traces of blood on his hands and face, Jake was surely going to get some strange looks, so he appreciated the offer. “Sure. Thanks, Callie.”

“No problem! Just don’t say my name out loud in Inkopolis and we’ll be fine,” she laughed, pulling her shades down over her eyes.


	7. Promises

As Jake had expected, he did draw attention from a handful of inklings, most of them throwing pitying glances his way, but none of them made any move to approach while he walked at Callie’s side. Her demeanour seemed to change the moment she stepped foot in public, her eyes hidden by her glasses and holding a straight face. The ends of her hair faded into a dark blue, since she couldn’t change the rest – a trait that was uncommon but not unheard of, Chance’s friend Mercedes had colour-tipped black hair – and Jake wondered just how often she got recognised in public, or what the consequences were for her if that happened. He decided not to ask, in case someone overheard.

Once they were away from the busiest areas of Inkopolis she seemed to relax, a skip in her step as she watched the more rural streets go by and humming quietly, in a tune Jake eventually recognised to be _City of Colour_. He didn’t speak for much of the walk – which he had the feeling was longer than Callie had expected, a good half hour from the square – and decided to forego his earlier plan of buying food, since he wasn’t alone. Sandwiches again.

Keeping to her earlier word, Callie waved goodbye as soon as they reached the front door. Jake quickly searched her face for any sign of a reaction to what his brother’s place looked like, a single-floor house with no garden and unidentified plants trying to climb the walls, but it was impossible to read her expression with her eyes hidden by the shades.

The rest of the day was quiet. Tired and hurting, Jake decided against going back for another round of turf war. Now with access to a sink – and a mirror, seeing his reflection for the first time since that encounter earlier and _ouch_ , he really did look kind of a mess, no wonder people were staring – he decided to clean himself up properly. The power was being temperamental, and the light above the mirror kept flickering on and off every few minutes.

A few hours later, all the power in the house shut off. Jake waited for it to come back, but it didn’t.

Well. That was inconvenient.

The fridge and freezer were almost empty anyway, so he scraped a meal out of what he could find in there before the food could go bad. When the sky started to get dark, the streetlamps remained off, as did all the lights in the windows of the nearby houses. It looked like everyone in the neighbourhood had no power, leaving the outside world in an eerie shadow.

It was creepy. Jake didn’t like it. He hid in his room with the curtains pulled and nothing but the light of his phone, which he was going to lose as well when its battery ran out.

With no sign of the power returning and a low-battery warning on his phone, Jake sent a few – mildly panicked – messages to Callie, just in case anything came up before he could access a working plug socket. He managed to read her replies just before his phone died; the power shortage might be from one of the missing zapfish, and that the old cabin at Tentakeel Outpost did have some power, albeit unreliably, and he could probably charge his phone there tomorrow if the power wasn’t back by then.

Jake hadn’t gone to bed so early since he was a little kid, but he didn’t want to stay up in a pitch black house with no electricity.

There was still no power the next morning, after Jake slept in surprisingly late for how early he’d gone to bed. He tried to switch on the bathroom lights without success, and for once was actually glad he _was_ alone in the house since he needed to leave the door open to see in this room with no windows. Apparently, changing in the dark, he’d put on his pyjama shirt backwards, but at least that didn’t matter. He did have a very nasty-looking bruise on the left side of his face, a large blueish-black patch along his cheek and nose, and Jake groaned inwardly as he caught sight of his reflection. _Thanks, octo-Rollo. You couldn’t have hit me in the shoulder or something instead?_

Jake would’ve opted to skip breakfast, but his stomach felt like an empty pit after how little he’d been eating recently, and thankfully there was still some fruit in the house. He’d have to see how much cash he could gather up later and go buy some food; preferably things that didn’t require being cooked or refrigerated, since the power didn’t seem to be coming back any time soon.

It was so quiet in the house. He couldn’t even watch television or play games now to distract himself from the fact that Rollo _wasn’t here_ , and he had no idea when he’d see his brother again or what the octarians might make him do.

After binning a banana skin, Jake collapsed back onto the dining chair, folded his arms against the table and dropped his head onto them, wincing as that made his cheek sting. Everything was terrible. He just wanted to wake up from this endless nightmare. It’d be great if he could suddenly snap awake to his brother whacking him across the head with a pillow to get him up, something he’d done many times in the past if Jake’s body was really adamant about oversleeping something important.

A loud knock at the door snapped him back to attention, and Jake sat up so fast the chair briefly tilted onto its back two legs. _Who…?_

Why was someone at the door? What did they want? It was barely ten, and as far as Jake knew they weren’t expecting anyone.

He should answer it. He really should. As much as he just wanted to hide and pretend there was no one home… there was a chance it was something important. _I’m pretty sure Rollo already paid this month’s rent, so at least that won’t be an issue. I hope._

There were no windows at the front door, so the only way to see who it hid without opening it was by peering through the little peep hole, and Jake resented whoever had designed this place for not considering the fact that _not all inklings are average height_ and he couldn’t reach it. There was no time to go find something to stand on, so reluctantly, Jake unlocked and opened the door.

Immediately his eyes widened with fear – and not only because of the familiar pink colour. _Oh no. This is bad._

_Delilah! Why is she here!?_

The older inkling looked irritated, and regarded him with a hint of a glare at first, but it quickly changed to a look of surprise. “Jake? What _happened_ to you? Your face—”

“N-nothing,” Jake stammered, hoping he didn’t look like too much of a coward in his attempt to hide behind the door. Too bad he couldn’t cover the left side of his face that way because of the direction it opened. “Wh-why are you here?”

Delilah shifted her weight, folding her arms across the front of her flannel hoodie. She was the leader of Team Geode, the league team Rollo was on, and though Jake only really knew her because of that, apparently she was decently well-known around Inkopolis for being one of the top players, with a tenta brella of all things. She was pretty recognisable too, with the long hair that would usually hang at her sides tied half way down her back, and a pilot hat covering it at the top. “Where’s your brother? He hasn’t shown up at practice for over a week, and he’s ignoring every one of us.”

Jake shrank back even more, if that were possible. Delilah had the unyielding ability to make him feel even smaller than usual; she had an entire foot on him in height, she was even taller than his brother, albeit by only an inch. He hesitated, trying to decide how he should respond.

The ‘he’s just busy’ lie wouldn’t work on someone Rollo actually kept in contact with and saw regularly. They knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t skip something important like league practice without a word. “He’s…” Jake bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t tell the truth. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about the octarians, and besides, it’d be too much to explain even if he could. “He’s… missing.”

A brief silence fell over them. It was even quieter than it would’ve been normally, with the power in the entire neighbourhood being off. Delilah’s expression melted into concern. “Missing…?” she repeated. “How…?”

“I… I don’t know.” That was a lie, technically, although he didn’t know _exactly_ how the octarians had captured Rollo.

“Damn.” Delilah put a hand to her head, shifting the position of her hat slightly. “I wouldn’t have thought— shit, dude. Pardon my language. I hope he’s okay.”

“Y-yeah. Me too.” Jake nodded quietly, his gaze fixed on the welcome mat. _I hope the octarians don’t do anything else to him – or make him do anything dangerous._

“Well… we’ll keep an eye out, alright? I’ll send word to you if we find any sign of him.” She gave a thumbs-up. “You might wanna put some more ice on that shiner too, if you have any. If someone’s been picking on Ro’s li’l brother, just tell me who deserves a punch, alright?” Delilah hit her fist into the palm of her other hand. She was protective of her team, and it seemed that extended to their close family, too.

_I doubt you’d be saying that if you know how I got this._ Jake forced a half-hearted smile anyway. She was definitely a threatening sight. “Thanks.” He silently hoped that she _wouldn’t_ find any trace of Rollo; he had no idea what would happen if she or any of the rest of the team did.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t long before Jake gave up on sticking around at home and headed back out to Octo Canyon, armed with a phone charger. There was no sign of Callie or Marie, and their weapons were still here, so that left Jake alone to try and find where the plugs were in the tiny-but-crowded cabin. Callie had conveniently left out the part where he had to dig out the power source from behind all the mess. He considered looking to see if there was any more ice in the freezer, since the one at home had defrosted by now, but it was on the far side of the room, and Jake didn’t fancy risking any more bruises just to help alleviate the one he already had.

Once he finally located an outlet, hidden behind a small table, he plugged in his phone, and the screen lit up with a new notification. It was just a message from Callie, stating that she had work this morning and that, left to her own devices, it was unlikely Marie would be awake until at least noon. ‘ _Stay safe, and also fresh._ ’

Jake sighed, placing his phone down on the corner of the table where it would probably be safe. What now? He wanted a full battery on his phone before he went home, but after a few minutes only gave it a 1% charge, he understood why Callie had referred to the power here as ‘unreliable’.

His eyes rested on the black-and-yellow charger, half hidden in the corner. This was the real one, not the replica he’d been given for practice, and it probably hadn’t been moved since the one time he went into the domes last week.

An idea started to form in his mind, and Jake frowned. Despite all his practicing, he knew the Squid Sisters thought he was useless to them, especially Marie. The only reason they hadn’t outright sent him away and cut off his involvement was because he was the little brother of their Agent 4.

The power was going to remain out at home while the zapfish were missing, and Callie and Marie weren’t here currently, so if someone _else_ were to go and retrieve the zapfish…

Rollo had been able to do it on his own. It couldn’t be _that_ hard, as long as he didn’t freeze in the sights of a powerful enemy this time. _Just be brave, and you can do it._

Making up his mind, Jake fished the charger out of its resting spot. He was going to prove he could be useful.

 

* * *

 

On any other occasion, Marie would’ve been glad to take a few days off work. Unfortunately, though, this _wasn’t_ any other occasion, and her vacation time was spent checking every oversized kettle of Octo Canyon for signs of octarians – or Agent 4. At least the domes provided so many echoes that it was easy enough to hear the sounds of their machinery just by putting an ear to the grates, and most of them were lacking.

“This is so _boring_ ,” Callie groaned, dropping her head onto one of the grates after deciding there was nobody inside. Her voice echoed down the pipe.

Marie, not feeling up to spatting with her cousin right now, just nodded. “Yeah.” She’d much rather be devising some kind of plan to work out where Agent 4 might be, but there just wasn’t enough to go on. The octarians hadn’t made any move to take the Great Zapfish yet, but the smaller ones were still important, and some places in Inkopolis had already lost power – Jake’s place included, judging by the panicked messages he’d sent Callie last night.

“Oh, ew,” Callie grimaced, hurriedly pushing herself back into a sitting position away from the grate, now with its pattern temporarily pressed into one cheek. “Octarians smell bad.”

“It’s probably the fumes,” Marie commented nonchalantly, listening for any noise in the large kettle where the Octo Samurai had been defeated. Nothing. At least the octoweapons hadn’t been powered up again, but she wished the octarians would conveniently set up the zapfish in an orderly pattern of domes so they didn’t have to spend ages checking them all each day. “Don’t you know what…?” _Don’t you know what they smell like? You spent enough time around them._  Her sentence trailed off, a sudden thought catching her.

“Don’t I know… what?” Callie climbed back to her feet, approaching the boss kettle thinking Marie had detected something there.

Marie shook her head, turning away from the grate. “Nothing, it’s just—Octavio brainwashed you wish those hypnoshades. Do you remember anything from it?”

“Other than the fact I looked really cool?” Callie grinned. Her forced-cheery expression fell when Marie threw her an unimpressed look. The both of them had spent ages searching the apartment to find where Callie had misplaced her Agent 1 shades, just so she’d stop trying to put the hypnoshades back on by accident. “I don’t really know. It was all kinda fuzzy. I remember singing to help Rollo defeat Octavio, and… just slightly before that.”

With a frown as she recalled what Callie was talking about, and that it was probably something she didn’t _want_ to recall, Marie sighed. Perhaps it’d be best to not draw attention to it; Callie had witnessed Octavio almost _kill_ her cousin, and the memory was probably still fresh a month later. “Yeah, but that was after the shades were gone.” She headed for the kettle they hadn’t checked yet; it was the highest one in this section and they’d probably have to swim up a wall to get there. She wasn’t looking forward to that. “Jake told me Agent 4 didn’t have anything unusual about him, just some armour he hadn’t seen before. You were there, Callie; didn’t you notice anything?”

“You should have seen his _eyes_ , Marie.” Callie shuddered as she hurried after her. “Remember that time I accidentally broke Aunt Miyaki’s favourite vase when we were kids?”

“Mom looked like she wanted to kill you,” Marie snorted. “And me, and whoever invented fragile pottery.”

“Exactly! But like, remember that look in her eyes, and then multiply it by ten – and then give her a weapon. He wasn’t messing around. There’s no way the octarians didn’t do _something_ to him.” She sighed, sadness and worry evident in her voice. “I just wish we knew what, or how to snap him out of it.”

_Or if we even can._ The words went unspoken, but Marie knew Callie was thinking it.

“They must have really developed their technology in the past few months if they can brainwash someone without the glasses.” Marie stared down at the ground as she walked, unable to make eye contact suddenly. The octarians hadn’t made Callie do much more than aid Octavio in the fight; Marie didn’t know what she’d do if Callie had actually tried to attack anyone, or even her. A wry smile spread on her face, knowing how stupid her next words would sound. “I’m kinda glad they captured you when they did. Who knows what would’ve happened now.”

“Aww, that’s really sweet! In a strange, Marie kind of way.” Callie nudged her arm. “I mean, I would have preferred if I hadn’t got captured at _all_ , but I’m glad they didn’t make me attack you or anything. I can’t even imagine how Jake must have felt.”

“Yeah…” Maybe Marie did feel a little bad for him. The only reason she wanted to let him stay involved was in the hopes that he might be right in believing he could bring his brother’s conscious back somehow, ideally without hurting him too much – and the fact that the kid seemed determined to do _something_ , and he’d only end up getting in their way otherwise.

“You have been kinda harsh to him. Just a little. A teeny bit.” Callie held her fingers close together for emphasis.

Marie threw her a look, one eyebrow raised. “What? How?”

“We-e-ell… there was that time you threatened to shoot him, and then you said some kinda mean things after we got back from that octarian dome, not to mention the things you said when we were _in_ the dome…”

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” Marie said stubbornly. “If he can’t defend himself – or heck, even move away from _certain_ _death_ , he’s gonna get himself killed.”

“Sure, sure, but _still_.” Callie frowned at her – not just a frown, the _Callie_ _Pout_ , that face she always made when she was trying to get Marie to do something. “Look, I know you’re kinda upset about Agent 4 getting brainwashed, and everything just… being a mess, in general, but _please_ don’t take your anger out on Jake. I’m sure he’s upset too.”

Marie held her gaze for a long moment. There was just no winning against that expression, though. She let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, okay, I guess I might have been a little too harsh. I’ll _try_ and be nicer to him in future. He has been practicing.”

“Great!” Callie beamed, that seeming to revitalise her as she ran on ahead towards the next kettle. Once she reached the corner of the wall, she stopped. “… Ah.”

“ _‘Ah’_ what?” That wasn’t a good reaction. Quickening her walking pace to find out what she’d seen, Marie looked up at the wall.

It was splattered with cyan blue ink, the perfect vertical trail showing it was the shot from a charger.

Marie stared at the inked wall, speechless for a few seconds as what exactly this meant hit her. “He’s dead. He’s so dead. And if he’s not I’ll kill him myself.” She was being sarcastic. Probably.

As she gave a half-hearted smile, the tips of Callie’s hair faded into cyan in preparation to transform and swim up the wall. “When we find him, maybe you should let _me_ do the lecture this time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: they don't actually appear or get mentioned again at any point in the story, but in this universe Callie and Marie's mothers are called Okono and Miyaki, based on a dish which sometimes has squid as an ingredient. Cap'n Cuttlefish is apparently the origin of terrible food pun names and they just kept up the tradition by naming their children calamari. Extra Squid Story Lore.


	8. Chosen Path

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter: some mentions of transphobia in the first 2 sections

“Jake.”

No response. The young inkling remained curled up on his bed; sulking, probably, since he looked too tense to be asleep.

“Jaaaaakey.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Rollo smiled. He always knew how to get a response out of his little brother. The springs of the mattress shrieked in protest as he sat on the edge of it with more force than necessary, shaking the whole thing. “You can’t _stop_ me from calling you Jakey.”

“I’ll kick you.”

“Ohh. Tough guy, huh.” Rollo patted his arm. “What’s the matter, tough guy?”

Jake let out a despondent sigh. “Nothing.”

“Ah, I see. Teen angst.”

“Shut up.” Jake rolled his eyes. He pushed himself into sitting up at last, wincing and pressing a hand to his upper right arm. The skin was slightly blueish, as if he’d hit it recently but not enough time had passed for a bruise to form yet.

Rollo frowned. “What happened to your arm?”

Jake shrugged dismissively. “Dad.”

“He _hit_ you!?” A hundred thoughts swarmed in Rollo’s mind, most of them his instinctive need to protect his younger sibling, and the rest making him want to storm across the house and demand answers from their father.

“ _No_! No,” Jake said hastily, reaching out for Rollo’s arm as if he expected him to actually run off and do that right this second. “I was just… in his way, and he pushed me aside, and I fell against the table.” He drew his arm back, wrapping both around his knees. There was a slight puffiness to his eyes; a sign he’d cried recently. “He said if I _‘wanted to be a real man’_ I wouldn’t cry just because something hurt.”

Of course their dad had found some excuse to make a jab at Jake’s identity. Of _course_ he had. Their mother at least tried to be supportive, but their father had made it obvious since the day Jake came out to them that he thought it was ‘just a phase’, even though it had been years. “Don’t listen to him. Guys cry all the time.”

“ _You_ don’t.”

Rollo gave a wry smile. “I have to keep up my cool and edgy appearance, right?”

He laughed as Jake gently smacked him in the shoulder.

“Oh, also,” Rollo added, remembering the main reason he’d gone straight to his brother’s room after getting home from work. “I got some news on the Inkopolis house.”

“Good news?” Jake asked warily, adjusting his slightly-misaligned glasses. “Or bad…?”

“A bit of both, I guess,” Rollo shrugged, kicking off his shoes so he could sit cross-legged on the bed instead and actually face his brother to share the update. He noticed Jake throw him a ‘you better not leave them in my room’ look. “Turns out they actually want the contract signed a month earlier than we thought, and someone needs to live there, so—”

“We’re going _this_ month?” Jake interrupted, his eyes lighting up with excitement. They’d been planning to move to Inkopolis for the past two years; initially Rollo had intended to move alone, but Jake really wanted to go with him – that was where all the music scene happened as well as the splat league, two things that his little brother was very interested in – and they’d both worked their hardest to earn enough money to afford to live there. Plus, from what Rollo heard, Inkopolis was a pretty open-minded place, much friendlier to squids like them than the far-off land where they lived.

“Well… moving the plane tickets is kinda expensive,” Rollo began, his voice guarded, worried about crushing his little brother’s dreams even though nothing on his end had actually changed. “I figured the best course of action might be for me to change mine to next week, and you can get your original plane next month.”

There was a brief moment when the disappointment was clear on Jake’s face – also a hint of fear, at being left here with their parents and younger siblings without Rollo to look out for him, and having to travel alone. A few seconds later, he steeled himself, giving a determined nod. “Right! Don’t make too much of a mess before I get there.”

“Not _too_ _much_ ,” Rollo said with joking emphasis, reaching out to ruffle his brother’s hair. Jake laughed and tried to smack his hand away. “Not long now, right? Soon we can start over in Inkopolis, and you can finally be yourself.”

“Yes!” That brought the enthusiasm back into Jake’s eyes; that was one of his main reasons for wanting to go. His mouth soon curved into a smirk. “And you can continue to talk about how hot the guys are and never even attempt to ask any of them out.”

Rollo snorted. “I can’t even get mad at you for saying that, you’re probably right.”

 

* * *

 

Jake had never been on a plane before, let alone by himself, but he managed to suffer through the uneasiness in his stomach and the weird feeling in his ears, and was silently glad that the business-looking guy in the seat next to him didn’t attempt any kind of social interaction for the entire flight – or fall asleep on him like he’d seen on television, which would have been a million times worse. It gave Jake a lot of time to reflect on everything leading up to now, and to feel the excitement rebuilding for where he was going.

The past month had felt almost unbearable, and Jake spent most of it holed up in his room when he wasn’t outside trying to pass the time by walking the dry country roads. Rollo was the firstborn of their household and the family favourite, the one their parents were proud of because he went out there and got a job – at McDonalds, which was apparently infinitely more impressive than washing the neighbourhood vehicles and delivering newspapers like Jake had done to help raise money for their new life. In the past few years, Jake seemed to have been pushed down the ranks of parent-favourites. Their little brother, Kevin, was going to be twelve soon and was already pretty good at holding a humanoid form, even if he could only stop it from turning into a gloopy mess for about ten minutes. Dorothy was only five, still a blobby ink abomination like all inklings were at that age, and occasionally Jake would become aware of his parents watching him when they praised her for being a _good_ _girl_ , as if they feared that little Dottie might turn out like him when she grew up.

He could put that behind him now. Jake was on his way to Inkopolis, where his only interaction with the rest of the family would be the occasional phone call. No glares, no being pushed around, no little kids trying to pull on his hair.

Jake managed to lug his backpack and suitcase from the airport to the train, and opted to stand up for the thirty-minute shuttle since he couldn’t lift the wheeled bag off the ground, let alone to one of the above-seat racks. He hadn’t brought a ton of stuff with him for the move, mostly clothes and other necessities, but it was still _heavy_.

When he reached the main station of Inkopolis, it took him a while to find Rollo. His facial recognition was already pretty terrible, but it hadn’t occurred to him quite how different someone could look after just a month.

He had a hat now. And a fancy jacket. Perhaps the ‘cool and edgy’ look was catching on these days. Jake didn’t recognise him at all from a distance until Rollo let his hair change back into the natural light blue, realising that was the colour Jake would be looking for.

“ _Oof_ ,” Rollo grunted as he was crashed into by a one-armed hug with the force of a small inkling and a backpack. Catching his balance, he patted Jake’s shoulder. “Hey, bro.”

“We’re in _Inkopolis_!” That was Jake’s greeting as he released his brother from the hug, hopping on the spot. “And… you’re pink now, I guess.”

“Team colour, plus it looks good on me,” Rollo said with a grin as his hair changed colour once more. “Guess who already got scoped out by some of the high-ranks.”

“ _Whoa_ , you’re in a _league_ team!?” Jake gawked.

“Well, no. Soon, hopefully. They _are_ pretty good, though.” Rollo shrugged, reaching for the handle of Jake’s heavy suitcase. “C’mon; you wanna see the place, right?”

“Careful, it’s…” _heavy_. The word stopped in his mouth as Jake watched Rollo lift the bag up like it was made of feathers. “Huh. Yeah!”

Perhaps playing so many matches with a roller was paying off. That had always been his brother’s weapon of choice out of the handful the turf centre in their hometown provided, and he’d been pretty good at using it, too, hence why he’d taken the moniker of ‘Rollo’ instead of his real name, Rudolph, which he despised. Their parents did like really posh-sounding names; Jake had half-considered choosing his new one to something equally as fancy-sounding as his birth name, to fit the theme, but quickly decided that he hated every option.  ‘Jake’ was good enough for him.

It was a longer walk to the house than Jake had expected. When they first left the station, he’d gazed at every building, wondering which one might be their new home, but after six streets of that he grew tired and decided to just focus on where they were going instead, so he could get a head start on memorising the area.

Sure, Jake had seen the floor plans for their new house, but seeing the actual thing… was kind of underwhelming. It wasn’t grand in the slightest, quite far from Inkopolis Square in the suburban area, and there were six rooms in the entire house if the small hallway by the front door classed as one; a kitchen to the left, living room to the right, two bedrooms and one bathroom. It wasn’t exactly a palace, but at least the rent was decently low. Jake had the feeling Rollo had actually attempted to clean the place before he got here, because it was far too tidy for a place his messy older brother had inhabited for a month.

Inkopolis was, as Rollo had said, a much friendlier place than the town they lived in. Not only that, but almost everyone was invested in the recently set up splat league. Back home, there’d only been a small community centre with the necessary safety equipment to host turf war matches, and with only one stage, limited opening hours, a whopping eight weapons, and no ranked battles except for the one tournament they ran per year, it hadn’t been very impressive. Here in Inkopolis, it was the main attraction. The stage rotations were even announced on television once every two hours – by a band named Off the Hook, although Jake was a little disappointed that he’d missed the time the Squid Sisters presented the news, he liked their music a lot – and the square had an abundance of stores to buy weapons and gear for the sport.

It took a lot of losses with the Splattershot Jr given to everyone who signed up for turf, as well as trying a lot of different weapons in the testing range of Ammo Knights, for Jake to finally settle on the Jet Squelcher as a weapon he was most comfortable with using in matches. He liked the long range, being able to stay slightly away from the action and still be useful, and slowing the other team down with toxic mist so they were easier to hit.

It wasn’t long before the power at home started to flicker out at times. Rollo swore it hadn’t been like that in the extra month he’d lived here, and a few days later they found out it was because the Great Zapfish, the large creature that powered most of Inkopolis, had vanished, and the city’s other resources were struggling to output enough power for everyone.

Soon, Jake noticed that Rollo was home a lot less than he used to be. True, when he wasn’t playing matches, he was often working for that shady company with a building next to Deca Tower – Rollo kept trying to convince Jake to join him, without success – but when Jake asked, Rollo just said that he was doing extra practice with his team. They were trying to get to league standards, after all.

Rollo arrived home once with a different shirt and looking like he was in pain; he told his younger brother that it was just an injury he’d gained in splat zones. That was enough to put Jake off that particular mode for a long while, if it could really get that violent. When Jake next saw his jacket, it had a massive area stitched up along the left shoulder. Just how aggressive could the ranked players _get_?

After a few weeks, whatever was keeping Rollo away from home more seemed to stop – which was weird, if it was league practice, because he never said anything about his team actually getting accepted into the competition until a while later. Jake didn’t think too much into it, though; the Squid Sisters had released their first new single in a few years, and that was exciting enough to be enough of a distraction for him to forget to be suspicious.

He’d only find out the real reason a month later.

 

* * *

 

The octarian domes were terrifying. Jake had known that when he entered one with Callie and Marie before, but when he was alone it was even _worse_.

_I’ll be fine. Everything will be okay. It’s just like turf war, but the targets are bigger! Except I’m trying to get to the zapfish, not cover the place in ink…_

If he couldn’t do anything to save Rollo yet, he could at least get one of the city’s power sources back. It was easier said than done, but Rollo had done this before! Whenever he did come back, as his usual self – and he _would_ , Jake had to keep telling himself – perhaps he’d finally share some stories of his secret adventure here in Octo Canyon, now that Jake was aware of it.

Perhaps he’d picked a bad kettle to jump into, because this one had octozeppelins in it; _massive_ ones, fired from giant machines. They were slow-moving, though, and didn’t seem to be able to tell where he was, and with a giant tentacle sticking out of the top they were also good target practice. Jake could aim at them, he could hit his mark, and they’d explode before they were close enough to hurt him.

_Easy._ He headed towards the light of the zapfish as he made his way through the platforms of the dome. There were some smaller octozeppelins in here too, which were more difficult to defeat with a charger since they were fired in groups, but he managed to get through with no more injury than a few splashes of purple ink. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any octocommanders around in this dome, and when a few octocopters showed up to try and stop him, he was able to shoot them out of the sky. _All that practice is actually paying off!_

It took a while, but Jake eventually made it to the highest platform, a little out of breath. The zapfish was held here, in some kind of machine surrounded by a barrier. The creature let out a gargle when it saw him, wriggling madly.

“It’s—it’s okay, little guy!” Jake assured, approaching it and reaching out a hand. “I’ll get you out of there soo—”

The moment he touched the barrier, a force out of nowhere seemed to blast him back, shoving him to the ground.

“Don’t touch the barrier… got it…” he groaned, pushing himself back up. “ _Oww_ …”

He didn’t know what the barrier was made of, but it looked similar to the rainmaker’s shield. Jake wasn’t exactly a rainmaker pro, but perhaps he could use ink to destroy it.

Bombs were more fun than shooting a weapon, right? He threw a splat bomb at the barrier and it exploded on impact, shattering the shield and a nearby box. The zapfish let out a happy cry.

“There you go!” Jake raced forward, pulling the zapfish free from the machine. It yelped happily, glad to be free. The octarians’ ways of taking power from them were far less humane than in inkling society, that was for sure.

A wave of darkness spread throughout the dome as soon as the zapfish was off its pedestal, with all the monitors in the distance quickly flickering out. Jake watched it happen, amazement in his eyes.

“I did it,” he said quietly, enthusiasm growing in his voice. “I… I actually did it! We did it!”

He held the zapfish up above him like a holy artefact, and it let out a confused squeal.

“Oh—oh, sorry!” he apologised hurriedly, lowering it back to arm height before it could fly into a complete panic and try to electrocute him. “See, little guy? I saved you!” Jake beamed. “What’s your name?”

No reply. _It’s a zapfish, silly, it can’t talk_.

“Hmm… you kinda look like… a Terry. Mind if I call you Terry?”

The zapfish blinked slowly at him.

Jake nodded contentedly. “Terry it is. Come on, Terry, let’s get out of here.”

A horrific screech came from above. Jake’s gaze snapped in that direction, sudden horror creeping down his back.

From the top of the dome, a large number of twintacle octotroopers were floating down towards him, their descent slowed by balloons. There were far too many for him to be able to fight at once and alone.

“U-uhh… come on, Terry, time to go.” Lodging the zapfish under one arm, Jake looked over the side of the platform. _There’s a long way to the next one…_ He might be able to make the jump in squid form, but then he couldn’t carry the zapfish.

Oh dear. Maybe he was in a little over his head after all.

Jake glanced around in a panic, trying to find some other means of escape. His distressed gaze soon fell on the broken box; some cans had slid out of the smashed side.

_A stingray! Can I use that to fight off the octarians?_

A quick glance up showed that, no, there’d be far too many to defeat with a stingray before they reached him. A few of them were already firing at him, and Jake had to dodge their ink as it splashed on the ground at his feet.

“Come on, come _on_ …!” There had to be a way out of this! There had to be! If he died here, Marie would _really_ think he was useless.

There was a grapplink floating above the platform. He’d seen a few of them hovering around the dome, and used some of them to get across gaps, but this one was too close to help in any way.

“The stingray!” he blurted out, suddenly hit by an idea. He pulled out his hood, placing the zapfish in it. Perhaps it was a good thing he hadn’t thought to put the luminescent jacket on before venturing in here, even if it would’ve been an extra layer of armour if this plan didn’t work. “Hold on, Terry!”

The zapfish’s little fins grabbed onto his head as Jake fought to get the can open. More ink splattered to the ground and he winced as a blob caught his arm. “Come _on_ , _please_ …!”

Finally he managed to tear the can open, and the stingray popped out. _Yes!_

He aimed it in the direction he’d come and set it off, praying there would be solid ground under whichever grapplink he managed to hit.

 

* * *

 

Marie was conflicted whether she should _actually_ let Callie deal with the problem child this time or if he deserved whatever the first harsh words in her mouth were when they found him, assuming the octarians hadn’t torn him to shreds already and saved her the effort. Honestly, she was amazed he’d dared to venture into this place alone after his last experience, so he was either being brave or incredibly stupid. Currently, her money was on the latter.

Despite her anger, she hoped he wasn’t injured. He _was_ Agent 4’s little brother, after all. Marie didn’t have siblings, but Callie was very much like a sister to her, hence their stage name, and she knew from experience that she’d be distraught if anything happened to her.

When they emerged into the surprisingly dark octarian dome, she didn’t get a chance to think about her indecisiveness before she saw the beam of ink heading their way. “Stingray! _Duck_!”

Marie instinctively moved to try and shield Callie, even though it would’ve made no difference had the stingray actually hit them. It clipped a nearby grapplink, causing the device to light up and something to shoot towards it from across the dome.

A second later, an inkling faceplanted the ground in front of them. A zapfish tumbled from his hood.

Jake pushed himself up, looking slightly disoriented as he shook his head. When his gaze lifted from the ground, and he saw Callie and Marie, he froze.

Not that Marie could really fault him for that, because she did the same. _What._

The zapfish let out a quiet cry. That seemed to slap Jake back to life.

“Um…” he reached forward, gently picking up the yellow creature as he sat up on his knees. “I, uh… I got the zapfish?” He gave a childishly hopeful grin, twisted at one corner as if he was bracing himself for a rebuke. “His name is Terry.”

The awkward silence was broken by Callie, who gave the creature a slightly stupefied wave. “Hi Terry.”

“Callie.” Marie threw her a look.

“What?” Callie met her glare innocently. Shrugging, she walked forward to lift ‘Terry’ from Jake’s arms, and offered him a hand. “Did you really go through this whole place by yourself?”

_Don’t praise him!_ Marie bit the inside of her cheek, reminding herself that Callie probably would get upset if she went on a rant at the kid now. She had to admit, when compared to the wimp they’d had to protect in the first dome last week, the fact that Jake had managed to fight his way through one single-handedly _and_ reclaim the stolen zapfish from it _was_ pretty impressive.

“It was kinda difficult,” Jake admitted, letting Callie pull him back to his feet. He cast a glance behind him, probably at wherever he’d just been before using that stingray. “There were a lot of octarians after me once I had the zapfish. We should probably get out of here.”

“Right! I know a lot of inklings will be glad to have this little guy back.” Callie patted the zapfish before turning and walking past Marie, making a motion with her free arm for them to follow. “Dramatic escape time!”

“We’re jumping through a pipe, it’s not that dramatic.” Marie rolled her eyes.

She noticed Jake hesitate; he was watching her, worried about how she would react.

As mad as Marie had been before, the surprise had mostly subdued her anger. “Don’t go off into one of these places alone next time, kid,” she said calmly. “You could get yourself injured, or worse.”

Jake’s gaze fell to the ground. “Right… sorry.”

_Now you’re just making me feel bad._ Marie sighed. It was probably because of her lack of faith in him that he’d taken on this place alone anyhow. She forced herself to smile. “You did good, though, getting the zapfish back. Looks like your practice has been paying off, kiddo.”

He looked back up at her in surprise, eyes lighting up like a child on Squidmas morning. “Thank you, Marie! Th-that means a lot.”

She watched him race after Callie to the exit, a skip in his step now. Perhaps Callie was right. She could probably stand to be nicer to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very small divergence from canon: Callie's disappearance wasn't announced publicly on the news. Perhaps some tabloids caught wind of her being absent from work for a long time, but most of the general public don't know.


	9. Deadliest Weapon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings: this chapter contains some blood. A lot of blood. Some of you might already know why.

The rattling of a grate shouldn’t have been such a foreboding sound, but it brought an awful feeling that settled in the pit of Marie’s stomach. “I _really_ hope they haven’t managed to revive one of the octoweapons again.” This kettle led down to the dome where Agent 4 had fought the octo shower, and it had been tough enough of a fight for _him_.

“If they have, we just gotta beat it!” Callie said, smacking her fist into her other palm, and having to hurriedly make a grab for the handle of her roller before it fell over. “There’s three of us, and those things were all taken down by one squid each before!”

“We can do it.” Jake gave a determined nod. The spark in his eyes was marred slightly by the ugly yellowish bruise under his left one, but it didn’t seem to bother him – and it didn’t affect his vision, which was the main thing. He’d come a long way in just over a week, going from the crybaby who squealed at the sight of an octocopter to taking on an entire dome by himself. That didn’t mean doing that _hadn’t_ been incredibly stupid and reckless, but still.

Marie gave one of her signature half-smiles, still not one-hundred-percent sold on this kid but appreciating that he _was_ taking this seriously now and had put in the effort to practice. Hopefully that meant he wouldn’t be getting in their way anymore, or at least not as much. “Don’t underestimate the octoweapons, rookie. At least you’re better at aiming a charger now. That might be useful against this thing.”

She led their expedition down into the octarian dome, followed closely by Callie and then Jake. They arrived at a large arena with five pillars, four around the edges and one in the middle. The dome was darker than expected, though, and the dash tracks on the walls weren’t running. Was there not a zapfish here after all?

“Looks pretty deserted,” Callie observed aloud, squinting at the shadows in the distance of the low-lit arena as if they might hold some kind of secret. “I don’t see anything resembling an octoweapon, either. You sure we didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere?”

Marie didn’t answer the question, knowing it was meant as a joke. The path didn’t split. “Something’s not right.” Why had the grate been rattling if there was nothing here? It didn’t make any sense. “We should search the area, just in case.”

“Yes, captain!” Callie gave an overzealous salute, slinging her roller over one shoulder.

She wasn’t taking this seriously, Marie could tell. It wasn’t as if she could really blame her when they were faced with a quiet place like this, supposedly with a giant weapon hidden in a corner. Something felt _off_ , though, and Marie couldn’t shirk the feeling. Callie’s claim to fortune-telling powers clearly didn’t have much merit.

Marie watched Callie and Jake head off, after Callie gave a vague motion of ‘you check over there, I check over here’ which the younger inkling took a moment to understand. Aiming her charger up at the highest tower, Marie inked a line up the wall so she could climb it. It’d be easier to see the area from up there, as much as she hated swimming.

The whole place looked desolate and foreboding with no life or power. Marie charged her weapon as she scanned the area, watching over the others at the same time. Callie was circling the tower to the left, shrugging when she found nothing and heading for the next one counter-clockwise. Jake had climbed onto a tower to the right, and was using his weapon to poke at a device which used to dispense rolonium, but was now empty.

Marie was about to call out and tell him this, so he didn’t spend the next hour trying to decipher if there was anything suspicious about the dormant machine, but the second she opened her mouth she was interrupted by an urgent shout from Callie.

“Marie, _behind you_!”

“Wha—!?” She turned immediately, holding up her weapon, half expecting to see the Octo Shower hovering behind her despite how quiet it was.

Instead, there was someone she hadn’t expected to see.

_Agent 4._

The vague feeling of relief was incredibly short-lived. It wasn’t Agent 4 looking at her; there was pure hatred and malice in his visible eye, the look of someone who faced their worst enemy, not a friend. He made no hesitation as he lunged towards her with the hero roller raised over his shoulder for a powerful swing.

Her breath caught in her throat. Instinctively she took aim at the incoming threat.

She hesitated.

_Let go of the trigger!_ Her fight or flight response was screaming at her, but her hands didn’t even twitch. Her gaze briefly caught the charger scar on his exposed left shoulder.

_Fire at him or you’ll get hit!_

She couldn’t do it.

She couldn’t shoot Agent 4.

_And you complain about that kid for being too weak._

Then Agent 4 was upon her, and Marie’s reflexes kicked in to try and dodge the attack. They weren’t fast enough. The roller caught the side of her head.

Everything was a blur suddenly, and all she heard above the ringing in her ears was a horrified scream from Callie and her charger clattering against the floor.

The world was spinning – she was on the ground, suddenly, at the base of the tower she’d just been on. Her arm and side hurt. Had she really fallen all that way? _Good thing inklings don’t have bones…_

There was a muffled _splosh_ somewhere ahead of her. Agent 4 had jumped from the tower, landing in squid form in the ink that had splashed from his roller.

_Get up. Get away from him._ Everything turned violently in front of her as she tried to push herself up. Above everything else, her right temple stung like hell, and she froze as she realised the liquid dripping from her face wasn’t the purple of octarian ink, but instead dark blue. _Blood._

The grungy mess in front of her reformed into an inkling, plastered in a colour that didn’t match his hair.

“A-agent F…Four,” Marie started, but gave up when her words came out slurred. She tried to meet his gaze, hoping he might snap out of it – the octarian ink was hurting him too. His glare didn’t falter as he swung his weapon into the air.

She had no chance of avoiding it this time.

“ _Stop! Don’t hurt her!_ ”

Rollers clashed. Ink splattered the ground. Callie was there, entire body shaking as she tried to match the strength of their absent friend.

_Callie, don’t, please! He’ll hurt you too…_

Marie would never be able to forgive herself if she let anything happen to her cousin, but she couldn’t even see clearly, let alone fight.

“Snap out of it, Rollo! I know you would never do something like this!” Callie pleaded breathlessly. She nearly fell when he drew his weapon back to swing it at her again, but she managed to correct her balance in time to block it.

“You’re in the _way_.” Agent 4’s voice sounded so unlike him – snarled and threatening.

“And I ain’t moving!” Callie huffed, fending off another hit. “You’ll only get Marie over my dead body!”

“No,” Marie managed to choke out. She wished with all her heart that Callie would _leave_ , escape while she could. Callie might have been strong, but she was definitely out of practice and wouldn’t be able to hold off an experienced fighter forever.

_Why._

_Why did everything end up like this?_

**_BLAM_ ** _!_

The noise sounded deafening, but it was the unmistakeable sound of a charger not at full power. Cyan blue ink splashed on Agent 4, the shot hitting the octoling-style armour which covered the top half of his torso. It didn’t injure him, but it did divert his attention – it would’ve been an opening, but even Callie didn’t have it in her to attack their close friend.

“R-Rollo, please… _stop_!”

 

* * *

 

Jake was aware of the tears streaming down his face, dripping fast onto the scratched-up floor. His voice shook and a sob threatened to interrupt his words.

_Just stop._

_Make everything stop._

_Don’t do this!_

He had to do something, he always had to do _something_ but didn’t know what. Jake had to hold his breath to take that shot because his hands were shaking so much, and he really, _really_ didn’t want to hurt his brother – and a poorly-aimed full charge could be fatal with a weapon like this.

“Rollo, why are you doing this?” he cried. “I know the octarians brainwashed you, but you’re strong! You can fight them! Please…”

“Shut up.” No change in his cold glare, other than frustration at there being another obstacle. “Stay out of the way. You’re just a stupid kid!”

“I’m your _brother_!”

“You’re in the way of the mission!”

_He doesn’t recognise me. If he’s fighting them, he’s not winning. I have to do something._ “Fine—fine, then I’m part of your damn mission now! I’m not going to stand back and let you hurt them!” _Or worse. You’re trying to kill them, Rollo! Please, stop…!_

Rollo’s eyes narrowed. “Then you die first.”

Rollo was going to fight him. Jake couldn’t fight his own brother! Rollo was an experienced battler who could take on any inkling in X-rank for an equal fight, and Jake was…

_I don’t have to win. I just—I just have to find a way to bring him back!_

If this was a regular fight, Rollo would have been able to ink some of the ground and swim through it, but he couldn’t move in the octarian ink his roller currently held. He took off at a run towards Jake, ready to swing at him.

“Jake!” Callie shouted in alarm.

The younger inkling pulled out a curling bomb – thankfully these weapons could carry a lot of different subs – and set it on a path to the right. “It’s okay, Callie!” he lied, but he had to do this. “I’ll distract him; help Marie!”

She didn’t look convinced. Callie had barely managed to hold off the attacker, and she was undeniably stronger than Jake was – but she knew this was their best option, and nodded.

Transforming into a squid, Jake dove into the trail of ink left behind by his bomb, which exploded into a large puddle in the distance. Rollo slammed his weapon into the ground where he’d just been, splattering the place with purple ink.

Rollo morphed into a squid also – his form wouldn’t quite settle at first, as if his current state was trying to make him form an octopus shape despite it not being physically possible for an inkling. He was still his natural blue colour, though, and more than able to swim in the ink left by Jake’s weapon.

He was _fast_. Rollo didn’t have his ninja squid jacket to slow him down.

_I can’t swim away!_ Jake jumped from the ink, changing back to inkling form. _Change colour, change colour!_  He ran as he did, trying to keep out of range of the hero roller as he forced his ink to blend into a pink colour.

Jake shot the charger, purposefully missing so he could create a new line of ink that would block Rollo’s way. “Rollo, this is your colour! Your team colour! Th-the one you like to use the most! Don’t you remember!?”

He didn’t seem to. Rollo hopped the ink, roller bashing the ground when he ran for his target.

Jake fired some more shots, trying to cover more of the ground to slow him down. If it came down to a match of stamina, he knew he wouldn’t win. _I have to find another way!_

He faded back into his natural cyan colour, throwing another curling bomb. It didn’t matter if he tried to run or swim away, Rollo would be faster, so he might as well do the one that took less effort. When the bomb exploded this time, it caught the pod of a ride rail, setting it active.

Jake cast a glance back; Rollo had passed over the pink ink and was now swimming after him. _Ride rails push you forward and you can’t move back. Constant speed. He can’t catch me on there._ He jumped onto the rail, instantly dragged along by it. “We used to play on these in the park, remember?” he called back, desperately trying to find _something_ that might bring Rollo’s conscious back to him.

This wasn’t working either, because there was no change as Rollo followed him onto the floating path of ink.

The ink rail was quite long. Jake took a deep breath, holding down the trigger of his charger. _Okay. I can do this. I practiced._ The light on the charger lit up, indicating it was at full power. _Don’t miss. Whatever you do, don’t miss!_ He aimed it at his brother. “I’m sorry if this hurts--!”

**_CRASH_**!

The shot hit Rollo squarely on the metal covering his chest. The cyan ink didn’t hurt him but the force smacked him off-balance. He fell from the rail, hitting the ground hard. The roller skidded across the ground, laying to rest at the end of a long smear of purple ink.

“Rollo!” Jake jumped from the rail also, landing as a squid in the cyan ink from earlier. He burst out immediately, running towards his brother.

Rollo was getting up – he wasn’t badly injured from that fall, thank goodness. _Now! Before he can get his weapon back!_

Jake lunged for him, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him away from the roller, paying attention to where his other arm was in case he tried to take a swing at him again. “Rollo, come on! Snap out of it!” It wasn’t working. Panic rose in his chest. “Try to remember! _Please_! You’re my big brother, you’re all I have! You _can’t_ let the octarians _defeat you like this!_ ”

Rollo turned to look down at him, and for a split second Jake thought he was actually getting through to him.

No.

 “Stop _interfering_!”

_No!_

With a powerful swing of his arm, Rollo threw Jake to the ground. The charger escaped from his grip, causing a loud _clack_ as it hit the floor.

Rollo picked it up.

_No. No no no—_ “Rollo, wait! Please, _listen to me_!” Jake tried to escape, tried to move away, but was stopped by the force of a foot against his chest, pinning him in place. _No, he can’t, no!_ “Rollo, _please_!”

Wordlessly, Rollo let the weapon charge. The ink tank had turned purple.

“Rollo!” Tears ran down the sides of Jake’s face as he desperately tried to free himself. His breath came out in panicked gulps.

The light flickered on.

_I’m going to die._

_Rollo’s going to kill me._

“N-no, no, _no_! Stop! _Stop it_!” Jake wailed. “ _ROLLO_!”

Aim.

“ ** _ROLLO_**!!”

**_CRASH!_ **

****

* * *

 

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t _know_ what to _do_.

“Callie… please, j-just get out of here…”

“No!” That was the one thing she knew she _couldn’t_ do. “Don’t—don’t say that, Marie, I’m not running away and leaving you behind!” Hoping Rollo wouldn’t go after them again while Jake had him distracted, she placed down her roller and focused on trying to help Marie back to her feet instead. “I can’t be the Squid Sisters on my own.”

Marie groaned in protest at Callie’s attempt to pull her up, pressing a hand to the injured side of her head. There was a worrying amount of blood – _any_ amount of blood was worrying to Callie, but it scared her even more not knowing how serious of an injury this was.

_It could probably be worse._

_It’s a head wound, though, what if it’s fatal?_

She forced down the lump forming in her throat. “We’ll find a way to escape here.” Giving up on trying to get her cousin to stand, she settled for giving her a wall to sit against instead. Callie had never really anticipated there being a time when she really wished she’d been to some kind of advanced first aid class. “We’ll get out of here with Jake, and—and maybe we can trap Ro—Agent 4 in here, or something! Or— or Jake will be able to bring him back! He’s his brother! Things are gonna work out.”

Callie wished she could believe her own optimism this time.

“It’s a mess,” Marie murmured, and she forced her eyes shut with a groan when they started to roll to the back of her head. “It’s all a mess…”

“Messes can be cleaned up!” Callie did her best effort to force a smile. “We can’t give up yet, Marie!” _Please, please don’t give up…_

Shouting.

Desperate shouting.

“ ** _ROLLO_**!!”

_Oh no._ Callie’s attention snapped to the brothers’ fight – Rollo had Jake pinned to the ground, he had the charger, he was aiming it at him—

**_CRASH!_ **

“ _No_!” the word burst from her, and she reached out one hand as if that was going to do anything to stop the events she could see unfolding.

She’d never heard such a horrific scream of pain in her life.

_No, no, no, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this!_

Her mind blanked. All she could hear was Jake crying in pain.

_This isn’t—this can’t be happening._

_He’s crying. He’s not dead._

The sudden realisation hit her.

Then she noticed Rollo step back.

The charger fell from his grip.

“N…no— _aUGH_!” He collapsed to his knees, hands flying to his head as if he’d suddenly been hit. His cap was knocked from his head, falling to the ground.

Callie gasped. “Rollo!?” _Please, please be back!_ She was up and running within milliseconds, leaving her discarded roller and praying she wouldn’t need it.

Now she could see the damage. Her stomach turned and a wave of nausea washed over her.

That shot hadn’t killed Jake, but it had severed his right arm. A horrifying mix of purple and dark blue splattered the ground, the latter increasing each second. His cries of pain had already stopped, and Callie prayed that he was just unconscious.

Rollo looked up at Callie as she approached – he tried, at least, but his eyes didn’t focus. They didn’t hold that murderous look anymore, though. “C-Callie…?”

“Yeah.” She was too shocked to give a less dumbfounded response. _That’s… that’s Rollo. That’s our Agent 4._ Maybe… maybe seeing Jake like this had managed to drag him back to consciousness after all.

_But why… why did it have to take this to do it?_

“Callie, please…” Rollo groaned, his body swaying as he pressed a hand firmly to his forehead. “H…e’s my… little brother… s-save him…”

He toppled sideways, falling limp onto the ink-covered ground.

“I…” _I’ll try._ That’s what Callie wanted to say, but she had no idea what to do.

Marie was always the one who knew what to do. She was the one Callie always relied on when tough situations came up.

She couldn’t help now. Marie had passed out against the central pillar.

Callie was the only one who could do _anything_ , and yet she still _couldn’t_ …!

“No.” She slapped her cheeks, smearing the tears across her face. This wasn’t the time to give up. They needed her.

And she needed help if she was going to be able to do anything.

She took out her phone, praying the sliver of signal would still connect as she tapped the contact. The ringing droned on for an agonising amount of time before the line clicked on, and she didn’t give the recipient time to say a friendly ‘hello’.

“Sheldon, I need you to get out here with some kind of transport as fast as possible – a-and bring every type of emergency first aid you have.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ink logic??? I don't have it. (I guess we can assume Rollo has an ink tank with octarian ink in it, whereas everyone else is using..... magic. Pee? Who knows.)


	10. Incapacity

The ink current dragged him spiralling around a massive tower, lifted higher and higher by a ride rail which led past the stations of multiple octarian grunts, of which he was ever so slightly out of range. Rollo’s throwing game was definitely getting stronger as he tossed a bomb towards each enemy as he passed.

“Octosnipers at the top.” Marie’s voice crackled slightly over the communicator. The line had taken a dive in quality as soon as they reached the base above Cephalon HQ, but at least Rollo could still understand her words well enough. “Be careful.”

He looked up to see the path ahead, spying the green beams of the octosnipers’ line of sight. He was on a pretty steady path on this ride rail, making him an easy target, but the octarians were slow and he might be able to jump over their fire. There was something else up at the top of the tower with them, as well as the zapfish; a balloon fish. The smallest drop of ink would set that thing off and splat both the octosnipers immediately. “I got it. No biggie.”

The focusing beams latched onto him as he neared the top of the tower. They were waiting for the right chance to shoot. _Too slow, octo._

One of the octosnipers sucked in a breath and fired once Rollo reached the end of the rail, and the shot passed under him as he jumped, swinging the roller. Ink splashed onto the balloon fish and it reacted immediately, swelling and exploding, shattering the barrier around the zapfish.

“ _Agent 4_!”

The second octosniper sent off its final fire in panic, a second before it exploded into turquoise ink.

It got a lucky shot.

Rollo cried out at the sudden searing pain in his left shoulder. It threw him off balance, and he crashed to the ground, the hero roller splashing into the ink a few feet away.

It hurt. His shoulder _burned_ so much he couldn’t move or feel anything other than that, and Rollo gritted his teeth. _Why. Why did it have to actually_ hit _me!?_

The zapfish let out a small blubber of panic as it tumbled from its perch.

“Agent 4? Agent 4, what happened? Can you hear me!? Come in, Agent 4!”

He could hear Marie’s voice, raised with alarm and muffled by static, from the headset. It must have gotten knocked off when he fell, lying half-submerged in the ink.

_Don’t give up. The mission isn’t over yet._ Despite his body screaming at him to stay still, Rollo fought to push himself up. The pain was more bearable as he grew accustomed to it, but it still hurt like hell. Perhaps he should just be glad he hadn’t picked up any worse injuries before now. Feeling a little lightheaded, he lifted the headset off the ground, and the ink ran off the shiny material it was made of. Awkwardly, with one hand, he managed to pull it back on over his ears.

“I’m… here,” he wheezed, wincing and pressing a hand to his shoulder. It was damp. He didn’t want to look. “One of them clipped me, that’s all.”

“Sheesh. You nearly gave me a heart attack. Three of them, even.” Marie let out an overdramatic sigh. “I _said_ be careful!”

“Hey, some things… easier said than done.” He swallowed a groan of pain, aware that she could hear him. “At least I got the zapfish.”

“That’s something, at least. Also, define ‘clipped’. Are you bleeding?”

“Yeah.” Simple replies were easier; he could still get the point across.

“Cod, that’s not good. Okay, well, try to avoid transforming into a squid if you can, you’ll make it worse. Did you clear out all the octarians?”

“Think so.”

“Alright. Wait there. I’ll have one of Sheldon’s drones send over a ride rail so you can get back.”

 

* * *

 

Marie didn’t know what kind of state she’d expected Agent 4 to be in when he returned, but the reality was definitely worse than she could’ve imagined.

“Oh, sweet lord,” she muttered under her breath as he stumbled towards the cabin. He _did_ have the zapfish, which he was struggling to carry along with the roller, but the entire left side of the chest and shoulder of the jacket he wore was stained dark blue. “I thought you said it _clipped_ you!? If you told me you were bleeding out I’d have gone to get you myself.”

“Saved you a trip.” Even if his face was twisted with pain, at least he was able to joke about it.

The roller fell from his grip, and Marie had to step aside before it could hit her. “Geez.” She gently took the zapfish from him – the poor thing was smeared with blood now, was it possible to give a zapfish a bath without being electrocuted? –and pointed to the bench at the side of the cabin. “Sit. We gotta check how serious your injury is.”

As she looked for somewhere to put the creature, eventually deciding to throw a blanket into an old cardboard box and place the zapfish in there until they were done, there was the protesting creak of wood as Agent 4 collapsed onto the seat. He had a hand pressed to his shoulder, wincing, and grimaced when he moved it away only to see it painted dark blue.

“It looks pretty bad from a distance,” Marie observed, casting a quick glance at the blood on her own hands now and made a mental note to avoid smearing it on her clothes by accident. “Maybe we should get you to a hospital.”

A flash of panic appeared in Agent 4’s eyes. “I’d… rather not. I’m, ah… not on insurance yet. It’d be kinda hard to explain to my little brother, too.”

“And explaining why you have a gaping hole in your shoulder is easier?” Marie threw him a slightly miffed look, but didn’t get an actual response. She frowned. “Okay, new deal; we assess the damage, and if it looks like something life-threatening, I’m sending you to the ER. I can cover the bill for you. Rich celeb, remember?” She was the one who had dragged him into this dangerous mission, after all. That was the least she could do.

“Oh. Right.” He gave a sheepish smile. “Sure, I guess.”

“Okay, good. Shirt off. Now.”

“What?” Agent 4 recoiled in surprise, wincing at the pain movement caused. “Wow, Marie, I’ve known you for like three weeks.” There was a strong hint of joking in his words.

Marie gave him an unimpressed look, rolling her eyes. “You’re charming, I’m sure, but I’m not into guys.”

“Huh. If I wasn’t covered in blood right now I’d give you a gay hi-five,” he laughed. “Ow.”

She gave a half-hearted smile. “Great! Well, now that the coming out party is over, we really need to stop the bleeding.”

It was a pretty nasty wound; the shot had torn through the luminescent jacket, as well as both the one he was wearing underneath and his shirt. Agent 4 fought to get all the layers off, with the occasional grunt of pain as the wound was aggravated, but at least the bleeding seemed to have almost stopped by now. Perhaps it wasn’t as serious as it looked after all.

Marie had seen her fair share of injuries before – Callie had practically shredded her arm once when she was learning to ride a bike, and that had very much put her off any future attempt – so was pretty unshaken as she attempted to clean the wound for him. He held his tongue, wincing occasionally when it hurt. For a shot wound, this was a surprisingly shallow one.

She realised why, after giving him a wad of gauze from the first aid box to hold against the wound, and noticed something foreign on the ground. It was dented and bloodied, and Marie had to pick it up and take a closer look to finally recognise it as a Rockenburg pin. The octosniper’s shot must have hit this and caused it to block some of the force behind it. “Looks like your sense of fashion might have saved your ass,” she joked, holding it in his line of vision. “Well, your shoulder.”

Agent 4 took a moment to work out what exactly she was holding. His eyebrows rose. “Wow. I guess I did have a lucky jacket after all.”

“Without this that shot might have gone right through.” _Then it definitely would’ve been a life-threatening injury._ Marie pushed the thought out of her mind. She distracted herself by picking up his discarded jacket. The shoulder was torn open, and there was no way that pin would be going back on, but… “I can probably fix this for you.” It might take a ton of stain remover, but the blood would probably wash out too.

“Really?” He sounded a little relieved; perhaps this jacket had some sentimental value to him, or perhaps it just had good abilities attached. Knowing this squid, it could be either. “Thanks, Marie, I’d appreciate that. I wouldn’t know how to do it myself.”

“Eh, no prob. I’ll see if I can find you something to wear so you don’t have to walk home shirtless,” she said with a smirk. “Although I don’t know if anything that belongs to my grandfather will make the journey less shameful.” She headed into the cabin, aiming to give him the ugliest shirt she could find.

The one she came back with was disappointingly average, just a single beige colour. Too bad this wasn’t where her grandfather kept his hidden stash of disgustingly bright aloha shirts. She gave it to Agent 4, along with some fresh gauze and some tape to hold it in place. “Give that injury a proper clean with water when you get home,” she ordered, using the same tone of voice she always held when trying to make sure Callie listened to her advice.

She really missed her cousin.

“Yes, mother.” His nod was a little over-emphasised. He winced as that made the injury hurt – good riddance, for mocking her. Agent 4 tugged at the hem of the shirt; he was a little too tall for it to fit properly, but at least it covered most of him. “I’ll give this back tomorrow.”

“Calm down, man.” Marie waved her hands, looking a little shocked. “Three days. I don’t wanna see you back here before then; you gotta rest.”

“Two,” he bartered stubbornly. “A few more zapfish and we’ll have enough power to open that big kettle at Cephalon HQ. I’m sure that’s where Callie is.”

His words silenced Marie for a moment. Sure, that was her main reason for being here, and she wanted to find Callie as soon as possible – even if she didn’t know what would happen when they did find her. As far as Marie could tell, she was working for the octarians. What if she didn’t even _want_ to come back?

She couldn’t dwell on that now. Marie had to believe they could save her cousin. “ _Three_. Give yourself time to heal, or else you’re gonna get done in by an octotrooper or something, and that would be embarrassing for both of us.”

“Okay, okay. Three days.”

As she watched him leave, Marie hoped that _would_ be enough time for him to recover. He’d been lucky this time, with that pin, but what if he wasn’t the next?

Marie didn’t have many friends. She’d always been a bit of a social recluse; sure, she knew most of the old shopkeepers, but she wasn’t particularly close to any of them. There was Agent 3, too, but as soon as Marie had allowed the stupid gay thoughts to fester in her mind, she’d tried to avoid her in fear of messing up because of that and embarrassing herself – and she didn’t know where she was now, anyway, just somewhere with the captain. For most of her life, it had just been Marie and Callie, and that was something she was now realising she’d taken for granted.

She didn’t know if Agent 4 counted as a friend, or an acquaintance, or even her unpaid intern, but he was willing to help her save Callie – and he’d almost _died_ because of it. For the first time since he’d joined her on this mission, she started to genuinely fear what might happen, to all of them, if she lost him.

 

* * *

 

“ _Marie_!”

The shout – more like slightly raised voice – made her head throb with pain, but despite every fibre of her being wanting to make a complaint about it, she held her tongue. Well, until she was enveloped in a tight hug and almost crushed, at least. “ _Ow_! Callie, my head…”

“Oops! Sorry.” Callie drew back, sniffling loudly and rubbing at her eyes with one hand. “I-I was just—I didn’t know if you were going to be okay.”

“I’m fine, Cal.” _Or at least, I will be, once this headache wears off._ She gave a reassuring smile. “It’s just a mild concussion.”

Marie only remembered bits and pieces of what happened yesterday. Agent 4 had attacked her, and that was the only clear thing in her mind. Everything after that was a blur – she remembered Callie protecting her after she’d been injured, and lots of shouting and screaming. When she awoke in a hospital bed in the early hours of the morning, she couldn’t sleep for anxiety over if something terrible had happened to her cousin.

It was an awfully familiar feeling.

Hit by a small pang of guilt for pushing her away just now, Marie forced herself to sit up. The movement made her head hurt, and she could feel the bruises along her side from when she’d fallen off that tower, as well as the almost foreign feeling of her hair against her shoulders. She rarely ever wore it down, sometimes even forgetting to untie it before she went to sleep, but she did seem to have a bandage on her head now and her hair would probably be in the way if it was tied up.

“Alright,” Marie said, holding out her arm that didn’t hurt. “Just don’t throw yourself at m— _oof_! Okay.” Gentle hugs weren’t exactly in Callie’s vocabulary. _Ow. Again._

Callie held the embrace for a solid twenty seconds, far from her record, before sliding away to the chair next to the bed. Content that her cousin was still alive, and not permanently injured or amnesiac, she looked more like her usual cheery self, albeit a little tired. No doubt Callie had been up half the night worrying about her. She’d shown up here the second visiting hours started.

“Is Jake okay?” Marie asked, realising she couldn’t remember seeing him at all after her injury. “And… and Agent 4, what happened to him?”

“Well…” Callie pressed her fingers together, the habit she often gained when trying to think how to explain something that wasn’t good. “Rollo isn’t injured. He’s with Sheldon right now, so he might get his ears talked off. And Jake… they, uh, won’t let me see him since I’m not a relative, but a nurse told me he’s stable and his arm will probably grow back in a month or two.”

“Wait, what?” Marie’s head throbbed again, and she could swear the world turned in front of her for a moment. “What happened to his arm? I don’t— I don’t remember everything from yesterday.”

A distant look passed over Callie’s expression for a moment, as if she were remembering something horrific, and her face turned a little pale. “You know what? That’s probably for the best, it looked kinda nasty.” She swallowed hard, shuddering. “Rollo shot him with the charger and it, uh, ripped his arm off.”

_He lost his arm._ Sure, it’d grow back. When Marie and Callie worked in Walleye, one of their co-workers had accidentally lopped some of his fingers off while using a machine, and they’d grown back after a few weeks. The jellyfish who worked dangerous jobs sometimes lost limbs, but without blood or brains they barely seemed to care and would just continue about their day with a slight inconvenience. It was different for inklings. They could bleed to death. Jake had been lucky to make it to a hospital in time, especially considering how deep into Octo Canyon they’d been.

“This is my fault,” Marie groaned, hiding her face in her hands. “I let him come with us, and now…”

“Marie, no.” Callie reached over to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We _both_ did, and he was determined to help us. It’s the octarians’ fault, if you really want to blame someone.”

“I guess.” Sure, that was technically true, but she couldn’t help feeling at least partially responsible.

“And hey, at least we got our Agent 4 back!” Callie beamed. “Well… sort of.”

 

* * *

 

The world was so… fuzzy.

And beepy.

What was beeping? _Alarm clock? Did I need to do something today? What day is it again…?_

Jake couldn’t quite remember. When he opened his eyes, everything was blurry – that was pretty normal, he didn’t sleep with his glasses on – but it all seemed a different colour than usual. Was there an odd light from somewhere, or were his eyes just messing up even more? He tried moving his right arm to rub at his eyes.

It didn’t happen. Just a horrendous pain in his shoulder.

_That_ woke him up.

Instinctively he tried to swallow the pained cry he let out, because it was probably early in the morning and he didn’t want to worry his brother and—

Rollo wasn’t here. Rollo had been captured by octarians.

Rollo had fought him.

Rollo had tried to _kill_ _him_.

_No…. no, no, no…_ Eyes round with fear, knowing what he would see but really hoping it wouldn’t be the case by some miracle, Jake turned his head to the right.

Bandages. _Lots_ of bandages. Some of them were stained blue.

His arm was gone.

_No, no, no!_

The beeping got faster. He was in a hospital. Panicking.

_Where’s Rollo? What happened to him!?_

_How did I get here?_

_What am I going to do with only one arm? I can’t even hold a weapon!_

_Everything’s ruined._

_I can’t do anything._

_I can’t even help my own brother!_

“Ah! Please, do not worry, ma’am! You may be going into shock.”

Jake didn’t even register that the unknown voice, which he couldn’t quite locate the source of, was supposed to be addressing him. There was more beeping of machinery, and breathing suddenly seemed to become easier – and he was now aware of the breathing mask covering half his face.

_Ma’am…? Oh._

It was hard to see without his glasses, but what he was pretty sure was a jellyfish wish a nurse cap appeared at the side of the bed. Standing on a stool, most likely. “You are safe here, and your arm should grow back soon – after a month or so, most likely, though it might take a few more weeks for it to form into a proper inkling arm shape.”

_Thank cod it’s not gone forever. But where is here?_ Jake had never been inside the Inkopolis hospital before, and only vaguely knew where it located, but he assumed that was where this place was. _And how did I get here?_ “I…” His voice cracked the second he tried to speak, and he had to swallow – ouch, his throat was really dry. He might have been out for a while. “I’m… a guy. Jake.”

“Oh!” The jellyfish wobbled slightly, lifting up some paper on the clipboard they were holding. “I do apologise, sir. We don’t have your medical records. I shall add that to the file now.” Pen scratching. “There is more information we need, but that can wait until you’ve had a chance to adjust.”

Good. He didn’t want to go through an interrogation right now. There was one thing he _did_ want to know, though, as soon as possible. “Are Ca—” _Wait. Probably shouldn’t reveal their identities._ He covered up his blunder with a cough. _Ouch._ “How did I get here? Was… there anyone with me?”

“Yes, although I cannot give away information of our other patients. There was a young woman asking to see you this morning, though we had to turn her away as she denied being any relation to you, so I do apologise if this was a friend. I do believe she asked a message to be passed along, though.” The jellyfish flipped through their papers once more. “Ah! This is where it’s written. ‘ _Rollo is safe, he’s with Sheldon_.’ Does this mean anything to you?”

“Yeah. Rollo’s my brother. Thank you.” He didn’t have the energy to say much more than that. _Rollo’s okay. He’s not with the octarians anymore. But why Sheldon?_

What had happened to Callie and Marie? He knew Marie had been injured during that fight, but he didn’t know how badly. It was unlikely anyone else knew he was here, so whoever the jellyfish had mentioned was probably one of them.

_Other patients_. Someone else was in the hospital too.

His brother was safe. So why did it feel like everything had gone wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rollo and Marie are mlm/wlw solidarity
> 
> Also, now you know how Rollo got his scar / torn jacket. It's also lowkey a reference to the fact that when I played that level for 1000% I'd get hit by one of those octosnipers Every Single Time because it never occurred to me that I was supposed to throw a bomb until I'd already played the level 9 times. I am a fool.


	11. Optimism

The next two days passed uneventfully, but by this point, Callie was glad to have some peace. Work had been quieter ever since their last octarian mishap and most of the press seemed to have been satiated by their new single, with Callie’s brief absence now forgotten. Both of them had been called into a meeting the day after that fight with Rollo, and though Marie was able to leave the hospital, she definitely wasn’t fit to do work, so Callie had to go alone and bluff off her cousin’s absence as illness to anyone who asked. She _technically_ wasn’t lying.

Callie made sure to check in with Rollo, who was, essentially, _imprisoned_ at Ammo Knights. She felt bad for him, being trapped there, but it was either that or have the octarians forcing him to return to them against his free will, and he insisted he’d rather be stuck in a glass bowl than try to hurt any of the people he cared about again. The octarians’ control over him hadn’t stopped just from that fight; he recounted to her a story of being forced into some kind of “mind-machine”, but that was all the memory he had of his brainwashing.

Aside from that brief outing, Callie had mostly stayed home. The doctors had advised she keep an eye on Marie for the two days after leaving the hospital just in case the concussion did turn more serious, but mostly she just slept. That wasn’t exactly unusual for Marie.

It had been three days now, though, and it was difficult to tell if she was actually unwell still or just turning into a recluse. Which, honestly, wasn’t unusual either. Marie’s first instinct whenever she was particularly upset by something seemed to be to just stay in bed until either she got over it or someone dragged her out.

Callie couldn’t blame her for being upset about this whole mess. She didn’t feel great, either. Her sleep had been interrupted constantly by nightmares of blood and violence. Normally, whenever she had nightmares, she’d go and bug Marie, who’d talk with her to calm her down until she either went back to her own room or just fell asleep in Marie’s bed – and wake up the next morning to find Marie had moved to her unoccupied one, because Callie was a huge sleep-cuddler – but she’d feel bad about disturbing her cousin’s rest now. She settled for just hugging one of the many stuffed animals on her bed instead, hoping she wouldn’t keep reliving the events from a few days ago every time she closed her eyes.

She didn’t like the fact that she slept later because of that, but she was still awake hours before Marie would be even on a normal day. After watching television for an hour on a volume so low she could barely hear it, Callie had made up her mind to make her now-daily visit to Ammo Knights, until she was interrupted by a phone notification. Thankfully it was a message she’d been waiting to receive, and as she typed out a reply, she made her way to Marie’s room.

Predictably, Marie was still asleep, curled up in a mountain of duvet. The curtains were drawn to block out the bright light of this particularly sunny morning.

“Marie?” Callie said quietly, the light of her phone shining from one hand. Perhaps she’d avoid trying to make her look at the screen today. She pocketed the device instead. “You awake?”

“Sure.” Her voice sounded a lot less groggy than it usually did when she’d just woken up; perhaps she wasn’t asleep after all. She had been sleeping a lot in the past couple days.

Deciding this meant she was alert enough for conversation, Callie skipped towards the bed, plopping herself down on the mattress and drawing an irritated groan out of her cousin when the impact made the bed shake. “I just got news from Jake! He’s out of the hospital finally.”

“That’s good,” Marie mumbled.

A frown tugged at the corners of Callie’s mouth. She’d hoped for at least a _little_ more enthusiasm. “Well… I’m gonna go check on Rollo soon. You need anything?”

“No.”

“Water?”

“No.”

“Want me to get you breakfast?”

“No.”

“You sure you don’t want anything?”

Marie pulled the duvet over her head. “Leave me alone, Callie.”

“No!” The word burst out before she had the chance to think, surprising even herself. She noticed Marie flinch, the sheet abomination curling in on itself slightly. “Sorry. I just worry about you when you get like this, okay? You’ve barely left your room since we got home.”

There was a long moment of silence. Callie was sure Marie just planned to ignore her again, until she eventually let out a sigh, muffled by the duvet. Marie pushed it off her, sitting up in bed at last. “I’m sorry, too. I’m fine, Cal, honest.”

Callie didn’t believe her, but at least this was the most animated she’d been yet. “Okay. Prove it.”

“…What?” Finally, an emotion, even if it was confusion – and slight wariness in her eyes as she tried to work out what that could mean. “How?”

“Squid practice!”

“ _Now_?”

“Yes, now!” Callie huffed. “C’mon, Marie, _please_? There’s so much dangerous stuff happening recently, and like…” _If you’d instinctively turned into a squid to escape, Rollo would have missed that swing._ She didn’t want to say that and remind Marie of what happened. “It’s important.”

Marie’s gaze fell to the carpet. She probably knew why Callie was trying to get her to do this now, even if she hadn’t spoken it aloud. One glare at the rug later, she seemed to give in. “Fiiine.”

“Yes!” Callie propelled herself up into standing, rocking on her heels as she waited for Marie to get out of bed. “Squid time!” She jumped into the air, her shape dissolving as she did so until she’d transformed into her pink squid form. The ground came at her faster than she’d anticipated, and she hit it with a resounding _flump_. “ _Oof_! Your turn!”

“I’d rather not follow your example,” Marie said, the hint of a smile on her face at last. It was only visible for a second before her inkling form vanished, and fell into what was essentially a green puddle. It took her a moment, the inky form morphing as she tried to pull it together, but eventually she managed to drag herself into a squid shape. “Okay… there.”

“You did it!” Callie cheered, her voice slightly garbled by her squid form. She hopped in a little circle. “Squid party! Squid party!”

“You’re ridiculous. This is why you’re not allowed in ranked,” Marie joked, although there was some strain in her voice. Willing enough to at least try and appease Callie’s enthusiastic nature, she tried a small jump. Impact with the ground destabilised the squid a little but she tried her best to hold the form together. A second jump, higher than she was probably intending, sent her squid form into a wobbly mess.

Less than a few seconds later she burst back into inkling form, holding a hand to the side of her head as she shakily pushed herself up off the ground.

“Oh!” Callie shot back up into an inkling. _Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed her so much._ “You did great! You held it for like… at least twenty seconds!”

“Sixteen,” Marie muttered, out of breath, her slightly squinted gaze resting briefly on the clock on the wall.

“That’s still good!” Callie clapped her hands. “I’m proud of you.”

“Even though everyone else can do it easily. For ages.”

“Shush! No negatives. You’re just out of practice, that’s all.” Holding out a hand in an offer to help her up, a thought crossed Callie’s mind. “You wanna get some fresh air? It’s probably okay for you to go out by now. You could come with me to see Rollo!”

Marie reached out to take her hand, but hesitated when she gave the suggestion. “No… no, I— I don’t think I could face him. Not yet.” She let Callie pull her up, probably not anticipating quite the force behind it and almost lost her balance again the moment she was standing. Sometimes Callie underestimated her own strength.

“Oh—yeah, I guess that’s understandable. Maybe soon.” Callie wished there was something she could do to help, but Marie was the only one who could get herself over her new fear of their friend. She habitually checked her phone, looking to see if she had any new messages – she didn’t, but that _did_ give her an idea. “Actually… if you’re feeling up to it, there _is_ somewhere else you could go.”

 

* * *

 

Life was boring when confined to a decently-sized fishbowl, with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling of the testing range and wait for food a few times a day, praying Sheldon wouldn’t go off on a ramble about whatever turf weapon he was currently fixing.

_Technically, this was your own idea._ Callie had been glad to see him back as himself again, but Rollo knew it would only be temporary until the octarians recharged their machine, so he insisted they find some way to imprison him lest he try to kill them again. He hadn’t quite mentally prepared himself for ‘you’re going to be trapped in an enclosed space for possibly weeks’, though. He’d been in here for three days already.

He missed splat zones. He missed his team.

He missed Jake.

Rollo wished he could’ve stopped the octarians from making him shoot his own brother. He knew he’d only returned to his senses because the power in the machine was running low, but why couldn’t it have had _slightly less power_?

At least he’d managed to redirect the shot. Not enough, though.

_At least he’s alive still. Inkling limbs can grow back._

As soon as all of this was over, he’d have to find some way of making it up to him. Maybe he’d take him to that ice cream shop he always seemed infatuated with. _He’s almost an adult now, but he’s still like a kid most of the time._ Not that ice cream would be enough to make up for all that he’d unwillingly put him through…

Of course, he didn’t know how long it would be until things were resolved, either. The octarians’ control over him had only diminished slightly because of this bowl thinning the signal. Apparently he’d already thrown himself at the sides of it countless times, as if trying to break out, but it felt like he’d dreamt each time it happened. He’d believe he had if it wasn’t for the bruises on his arms and shoulders afterwards.

_I thought all the mess was over when I defeated Octavio._ Rollo sighed, blowing the fringe out of his face as he laid almost upside-down in his oversized goldfish bowl.

“Whoa, Marie was right! You really do have a blind eye.”

The voice startled him, but only for a moment. He turned his head to see an upside-down inkling walking towards him, approaching from his blind side, his right eye where the pupil was entirely clouded over. “Hey Callie,” he yawned, stretching out his arms and rolling over backwards into a sitting position, causing his hair to fall back over his face. “You never noticed?”

“You hide it pretty well with hair like that,” Callie giggled, plopping herself down cross-legged on the concrete. “And hey, nice moves. I guess that’s why you’re called Rollo!”

“Ha ha.” He said sarcastically and rolled his eyes, but Callie’s smiles were always infectious. “How’s Marie? I haven’t seen her since… y’know.” _Since I tried to kill her._

“She’s good! I think she’s starting to feel better now, but I’m sure she’s going to try and get as much time off work from this as possible,” Callie scoffed. “She was just moping around the apartment though, so I managed to convince her to go out on an errand.”

“Well, I’m glad she’s doing better.” Rollo gave a half-hearted smile. Callie was kind enough to take time out of her day to visit him here, but part of him wished Marie would show up at some point. They had become pretty close friends during their time in Octo Canyon, after all. Perhaps she was just staying away because of the injury, but… “Do you think she’s mad at me?”

“For trying to kill her?” Callie said, unintentionally bluntly, and Rollo winced. “Nah. She knows it wasn’t really you, she’s just a little shaken up. You don’t hold a grudge against me, do you?”

“No, but… that’s kinda different.” _And you_ did _keep trying to put those hypnoshades back on before we destroyed them._

Callie shrugged. “If you say so. Oh! Oh! I hope you’re ready for some good news!” She whipped out her phone, tapping the screen a couple of times before holding it out to show him. _A text log?_

[10:46] I jut got hm from the hosptl

[10:46] s marie ok?

[10:47] Jake!!! omg are you okay? did you get home alright?

[10:47] oh wait you just said you did. silly me!

[10:47] she’s okay! how are you doing?

[10:48] sry for typs im riht haded

[10:48] im ok hve u seen rolo

[10:48] about to go see him now! I’ll let him know you got home safe

_He’s okay. They let him out of the hospital._ Rollo breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at the top of the screen – and had to stifle a laugh. “Your contact name for him is ‘S _quishy’_?”

“Am I _wrong_?” Callie grinned, taking the phone back. “You can’t tell me you don’t want to squish his cheeks.”

“Our grandmother did, but it’s not something that runs in the family,” Rollo snorted. “What’s Marie called?”

“I change hers every other week. Right now it’s ‘Grumpybum’. Fitting, right?” She snickered. “Yours is ‘Roller Twin’. ‘Cus, y’know, we both use rollers!”

“Simple, yet dignified,” Rollo smirked, as if he was a professional contact-name critic. He sat back against the glass, ending up sliding down to the bottom of the bowl. “I hope Jake’s okay. He’s not used to me being away from home for so long – and he usually has two arms.”

“Oh, I think he’ll be okay,” Callie nodded. “Remember that errand I sent Marie on?”

 

* * *

 

Life was much less convenient when you were missing one of your four main limbs. Jake could only just about manage to change clothes when he got home, and there was no way he could fight his way in or out of a binder with only one arm.

He couldn’t use his jet squelcher without two arms either. These past few weeks he’d managed to get by on Rollo’s last pay check from Grizzco and his winnings from turf war and tower control, but if he couldn’t play matches…

Jake let out a long sigh. The hospital bill wasn’t exactly cheap either, but at least it didn’t have to be paid back immediately. _I hope Rollo can come home soon._ He didn’t like being alone for so long. There wasn’t a whole lot to do at home, and there were only a select few video games he could play one-handed. At least the power was back now.

He’d given up on the idea of trying to make a decent lunch with one arm and settled on ‘apple’ as a good snack substitute, deciding he might as well catch the marathon of Pokémon movies on TV today since there was nothing better for him to do. A knock at the door briefly interrupted his plans.

_Who’s calling around here?_ None of his friends knew that he’d been in the hospital, or so he hoped. He’d already had to bluff to Team Geode, but after that, he’d hoped none of them would come back to look for his brother _again_ … and it would be a lot harder to explain a missing arm than a bruise on his face. Perhaps it was just a confused postman, or something. He could hope. He probably shouldn’t ignore whoever it was.

He held the apple in his teeth so that he had a free hand to open the door, trying to obscure his right shoulder in case it was someone he knew and didn’t want to explain the circumstances to.

“Hey. ‘Sup?”

The apple fell from his jaws in his surprise. Jake grabbed it before it could roll away – five second rule – and wiped it on his shirt as he opened his mouth to respond.

Then shut it again immediately as he realised; he was wearing a t-shirt. No oversized hoodie or binder.

_Shrimp._

 “Um, h-hey Marie.” He stuttered, making a vague attempt to flatten his shirt but knowing the damage was done. It was difficult to do while holding an apple, anyway. “I, uh, didn’t expect to see you—what brings you here?”

There was a tell-tale rise of her brow – she’d _noticed_ – but it was over in the blink of an eye and she said nothing about it. Marie shrugged; she looked almost as awkward as he did, which was somewhat of a reassurance. “I guess the nice version is I wanted to check you were doing okay.”

“Is… there a not nice version?”

“Callie sent me to babysit you.”

“Oh.” Jake shuffled his feet. “I’m okay, I guess. You’re welcome to come in for a while though, if you want.” It’d be rude to send her away. He didn’t know where she and Callie lived, but this part of town was a decent walk from Inkopolis Square. “… Actually, I might need you to open a jar.” The great stepping-stone of trying to make a jam sandwich with only one arm: opening the jam.

“Sure.” That pulled a smile out of her, at least.

Once in the house, she was kind enough to close the door so that Jake didn’t have to awkwardly juggle his apple while trying to do so. She spent a moment glancing around, and Jake wondered what kind of place she’d expected Agent 4 to live in. It felt unusual to see her wearing such a casual outfit, a hoodie and jeans and her hair tied up in just a ponytail instead of the iconic bow, but she was probably less likely to be recognised like this, especially in such a suburban area.

He caught a glimpse of the bruising above her right eye, mostly covered by her hair. _That’s from the fight with Rollo._ Jake bit his lip. “I’m… I’m sorry if I let you down in that fight.”

“What?” her attention fell back to him, and he suddenly felt very small, even if there wasn’t a glare in her eyes this time. “How?”

“I don’t know, I just… maybe if I’d been paying more attention, or something, I would’ve noticed he was there and you wouldn’t have been injured.”

His words were met with silence. Unable to meet her gaze, he took a small step back before escaping to the living room.

 

* * *

 

She really hadn’t expected him to say something like that. Perhaps bear some kind of grudge against her, if anything. Heck, she wouldn’t even blame him for that.

The fact that he seemed to be taking it as his own responsibility made her feel even _worse_.

Realising she was still standing by the door, she gave herself a brusque shake and followed after Jake. She hated the tense atmosphere. “Hey, kid—none of this is your fault, okay? You just got messed up in some nasty business.”

The living room was pretty small, with one two-cushioned couch and a small television with a games console stored underneath. Jake had dropped himself on the sofa, staring at the remote for the television as if he couldn’t decide whether he should turn it on or not, having abandoned his apple on the table for now.

Marie leant on the back of the sofa, folding her arms. “I’m not mad at you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Heck, you might be the reason we have Agent 4 back now. That fight could’ve gone a lot worse if you weren’t there.” And she really, _really_ didn’t want to think about what the worse outcomes could’ve been. _Callie wouldn’t have been able to hold him off forever._

Jake glanced up at her in surprise – either not realising she’d followed him into the room, or not expecting such a high praise. “I-I… that wasn’t it, but… thanks, I think. Everything’s just really weird lately. I don’t like it.”

“Yeah. I getcha.” She let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry for shouting at you a bunch before, by the way.”

“It’s okay. I figured you were just angry because I kept messing up.” Jake gave a one-armed shrug. This kid really didn’t hold grudges. “You can sit down if you want.”

“Okay, I won’t pretend you were the perfect recruit.” Marie grinned, skirting the couch to drop down on the opposite side. “Agent 4 was pretty terrible when he first started helping me find Callie.”

“He was?” Jake’s brow rose, then tilted with confusion. “Was Callie missing?”

“Right, right, you wouldn’t know about all that. Well, it’s kind of a long story, but in a nutshell the octarians kidnapped and brainwashed Callie. This was back when the Great Zapfish disappeared.”

“Oh! Oh! You said Rollo helped get it back, right?”

“Yep! He was the only poor sucker I could find to help, and he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a splattershot. A _splattershot_ ,” she repeated for emphasis, a smirk on her face. “Eventually I had Sheldon give him a roller instead, and after that I hadn’t seen anyone kick so much octarian butt since Agent 3.”

“Who’s Agent 3?” Jake asked, eyes gleaming with curiosity.

“Eh… that’s a story for another time.” She waved the question away with one hand. “I doubt Agent 4 knows that one either. It was kinda hush hush, so… forget I mentioned it.”

“Aww.” He looked so disappointed to be denied an interesting story. _Now that I think about it, he reminds me a lot of Callie…_

“So,” she added, trying to change the subject. “Any plans for the day?”

“Not really.” Jake cast a glance down at his empty sleeve. “I was just gonna watch Pokémon movies, but… if that’s too childish or something, we can watch something else.”

It sounded like he wanted her to stay, at least. That was nice – and she wasn’t up to walking home yet. She still didn’t feel her best; she’d only agreed to come out here because she knew Callie would only continue worrying about her if she refused, and she had to admit, it _was_ pretty stuffy being in the apartment all day. “Nah, Pokémon’s fine. Callie still keeps up with the show, somehow.”

 

* * *

 

“Uh… Marie? Marie, wake up.”

Marie wasn’t even aware that she’d dozed off until she was woken by someone shaking her arm. She was huddled in the corner of the sofa with a cushion in her arms; a usual habit for her when television made her sleepy. Apparently she hadn’t got her fill of sleeping in the past few days after all. “Whuh…? Sorry, was I out for long?”

At her first sign of waking, Jake drew back, almost falling off the sofa when he tried to put weight on the arm he didn’t have. “I don’t think so. I was gonna just let you sleep, but, um, I think your phone’s ringing.” He had a baggy jumper on over his t-shirt now, which he must have wrestled his way into at some point while she was asleep, and she felt a little guilty – partially for not being awake to lend him a hand, but also since she’d probably caught him totally unaware when she arrived.

“Oh.” He was right. Her groggy mind hadn’t quite registered the sound as her ringtone. She pulled her phone out, looking at the screen to see who was calling her. _Callie?_ She accepted the call, holding it to her ear and rubbing at her sleepy eyes with her free hand, wincing when she accidentally caught the injury. “Hey Cal, what’s up?”

“Marie! Marie! Is Jake with you?” Callie’s voice didn’t lose any of its enthusiasm even over the phone.

“Yeah, why?”

“Speakerphone!”

“… Why?”

“Just _do_ _it_!” Her voice peaked the speaker’s sound.

“Okay, okay,” Marie grimaced, moving the phone away from her ear. _My head still hurts, y’know._ She tapped the speaker icon and placed it on the sofa cushion next to her. “I think she wants to talk to you,” she explained with a glance at Jake.

“Oh!” He reached for the remote to turn the volume on the television down. “Hi Callie!”

“Hey Jake! How’s it going?” Apparently she caught the sound before it was lowered. “He-ey, are you guys watching Pokémon _without_ me!?”

“You can join us if you’re that heartbroken.” Marie rolled her eyes, even though Callie couldn’t see her.

“ _Hmm_ … soon. There’s something else important first.” The audio changed; Callie had put her phone on speaker as well. “Okay, you can talk now!”

“Huh? Oh, okay. Hey Jakey, you okay, bro?”

“Rollo!” Jake’s expression lit up into one of pure joy and relief; Marie was pretty sure she hadn’t seen him this happy before. “You’re back! Are you alright? The octarians didn’t hurt you, did they!?”

“I don’t think so.” Rollo’s voice sounded a little muffled and echoic compared to Callie’s. “Sorry for… y’know… shooting your arm off. I promise I’ll find some way to make it up to you when all this is over.”

“You better get a really damn big ice cream!” Jake scoffed. On the other end of the line, Callie started laughing, and Marie held a hand over her mouth to try and hide the grin on her face. It disappeared when he continued to speak. “Are you coming home soon?”

There was a short silence, broken only by a quiet “ _umm_ …” from Callie.

“Maybe,” Rollo said eventually. “Sorry, Jake, I’m gonna have to stay in the snow globe of shame for a while. I’ll be back before you know it, though.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. You’re a tough little guy; you’ll be okay until I get back.”

“I am _not_ little!” Jake huffed, drawing a laugh out of everyone, even himself.

“Sure, you keep telling yourself that. Hey, Marie, you doin’ okay? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Marie froze at the mention of her name, forgetting that she was technically a part of this group conversation also. For a brief moment, her mind went blank, unsure of how to respond. This was the first time she’d had any kind of communication with him since the message he’d sent when he was captured, and she didn’t dare admit that the only reason she’d stayed away from him was because she was afraid of looking at him again and only seeing the murderous intent in his eyes.  “…Yeah. It’s… it’s good to have you back, Agent 4.”

 

* * *

 

“Are you sure you could open this jar when you had both your arms?” No matter what angle Marie tried to twist the lid at, it remained firmly in place.

“Nope.” Jake grinned. “That’s why it’s still sealed. I thought you might be able to get it open and, like, unlock my ability to make jam sandwiches.”

Marie threw him an incredulous look, before setting the unchanged jam jar back on the counter. “I think we’ve both been defeated by jam. You like pizza? I can order some when Callie gets here.” Mostly, she just wanted to relinquish the job of ‘slightly taller person who can actually reach the shelves so Jake doesn’t fall off the counter trying to search the cupboards for lunch material’. “Or before she gets here, so she doesn’t demand we put pineapple on it.”

“I like pizza!” Jake gave a little hop. “Pineapple is good too.”

“Wow. I’ve suddenly decided I don’t know you anymore,” she smirked.

Despite the fact that Callie had essentially demanded she go here to babysit Jake, he seemed to be mostly capable of doing things on his own, and wouldn’t stop to ask for help before trying to do something which was less convenient with a missing limb – such as trying to scale the kitchen walls. He seemed happy to have the company, though, so Marie didn’t mind sticking around, even if that meant spending most of the day sitting around doing nothing. It was better than sitting around doing nothing on her own back at the apartment.

She ended up falling asleep again – apparently her body really wanted even more rest – and woke to Callie trying to see how many random items she could place on her before it interrupted her sleep. Five, it seemed. Apparently she and Jake had a bet going.

Callie offered to order the pizza, and any other food they might want. “That’s awfully generous of you, Callie,” Marie said, raising an eyebrow.

“Excuse me, Cuz, are you claiming I am usually _not_ generous!?” Callie pouted.

“No, but you’ll usually try and get free food out of anyone you can.”

“You guys are injured, so it’s on me! Unless you _really_ want to pay, Marie.”

“No thanks. You go ahead.” She was willing to put up with having to pluck pineapple from a pizza to get it for free.

Much to her surprise, despite Callie having control of the ingredients, hers didn’t have pineapple – and it was her favourite kind, too. Callie was probably trying to find a way to cheer them both up; she knew Marie’s favourite pizza already, but spent a short while quizzing Jake on his before ordering, and bought ice cream too.

There was a lot of bad hovering over them right now, with the octarians having some unknown scheme going on and all the trouble they were causing, but Marie had to remind herself that even if he was still partially under their control, Agent 4 _was_ back, and he’d be safe with Sheldon, for now at least. They would have to find some way to deal with the problem, get rid of this _machine_ Agent 4 had alluded to, before things could truly be okay.

Still… right now, she could believe they were. It was nice to be able to spend the day with friends, in what Callie seemed to have made into a little party with a Wii Bowling tournament where they had to use their non-dominant hands – Marie won, thanks to the unfair advantage of being ambidextrous. It felt good to not have an urgent mission or job, to laugh at Callie and Jake trying to exploit all the weird game mechanics and cause the on-screen characters to flail around.

It was almost twilight when they left Jake’s house, after making sure he had the ability to get himself some food – Callie had popped that jar open effortlessly somehow, and managed to convince him to let her tag along to buy groceries tomorrow since he couldn’t survive on just sandwiches, especially when they were difficult for him to make.

“Things are turning out okay after all,” Callie said with one of her usual cheery grins, nudging Marie’s arm.

Marie shook her off, but still, she couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah.”

“Right! C’mon!” Callie dashed ahead, skipping along the pavement. “Let’s get home quickly and make dinner, I’m starving!”

“Callie, you ate an entire pizza by yourself.”

“That was _hours_ ago!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the most filler chapter in the entire story, but I do love the chill squids. Let them have fun, because things are almost certainly going to get worse from here on out.
> 
> Pokémon canonically exists in splatoon time because of a splatfest from the first game, so I wonder if it's still the same games/show that survived the apocalypse or if they've all been remade where the protagonists are some kind of evolved sea creature.


	12. Unreliable Plans

Life with a sudden missing limb was inconvenient, but manageable, especially when Jake wasn’t _entirely_ left to his own devices. He appreciated Callie and Marie coming by to check on him, both for the help with tasks he could no longer do on his own – such as open jars – and just so that he didn’t have to be _alone_ in the house all this time. Even if he’d actually begun to adjust to it while Rollo was gone, he didn’t _like_ it.

It was nice getting to know them better in a place where their lives weren’t in immediate danger, too. Despite being a big fan of their music, Jake had never really known much about the Squid Sisters before moving to Inkopolis, other than their well-known rise to fame and the fact that they were actually cousins, not sisters. He and Rollo had moved here by the time Off the Hook were already presenting the news, so he’d never seen their banter over map rotations.

Despite how serious she seemed, Marie was actually pretty lazy, and was content to just sit around and watch television – or fall asleep in front of it. Callie, meanwhile, seemed to want to always be _doing_ something, and the moment they lost Marie to an accidental nap she’d try and find some other activity to drag Jake into. She was surprisingly good at scrabble, although Jake was pretty sure some of the fancy words she used didn’t _actually_ exist. That was proved when Marie finally woke up and informed her cousin that “woomiful” wasn’t a real word.

Callie was practically his saving grace in terms of food, too; she offered to go on the weekly outing to buy groceries with him, even offering to pay when she realised that without Rollo here he _really_ didn’t have much money. There was one major problem Jake soon ran into with this, though; having to find some way to awkwardly explain to her that he needed to get pads while they were here. He could’ve just gone back to buy them himself later, but he didn’t fancy going out alone just yet, and he trusted Callie enough by now to risk telling her.

“Oh.” It was hard to read her expression while her eyes were hidden behind the shades obscuring her identity, and Jake found himself bracing for the worst. “Ohh! You’re—okay! That’s fine. Nobody will question them if I’m here anyway, right?”

That… was surprisingly painless. Jake found himself just staring at her for a moment, amazed that she’d offered her support so quickly. He wasn’t used to that, given how his parents always acted. “You’re… you’re not mad at me?”

“What for?”

“For—for not telling you I’m trans.” Maybe that did sound kind of silly now he said it out loud, but he’d never been met with such a positive response before…

“Why would I be mad? I assume you don’t usually announce that to strangers when you first meet,” she shrugged, still holding a friendly smile.

“No… you’re actually the first person I’ve told since moving to Inkopolis.” Jake self-consciously worried the hem of his jumper. _Except maybe the doctors at the hospital. They don’t count._ He hadn’t received any backlash or harsh comments since arriving here, though; Rollo was right when he’d said Inkopolis was a much more friendly and accepting place than their hometown.

“Aww, I’m flattered!” Callie beamed, briefly placing a hand on his good shoulder. “Do you want me to keep it a secret from Marie?” She kept her voice quiet, to protect the secret she’d just learned, and so that people wouldn’t overhear her saying the name of her cousin.

Jake gave a wry smile. “I’m pretty sure she realised already.” Part of him was surprised that Callie _hadn’t_ , but he definitely wasn’t complaining.

“Well, I promise I won’t tell anyone else. I’m really good at keeping secrets! Unless they’re silly embarrassing things about Marie, of course.” She giggled, leaning against the shopping trolley in preparation to push it along. “You like marshmallows? I’m still trying to convince her they’re superior to hot dogs.”

“Sure!” Jake nodded. “… Please don’t start a campfire in my house.”

“Of course not! I’d never do such a thing.” Knowing Callie, there was at least a small chance she’d vaguely considered it.

 

* * *

 

A week passed before Callie was finally able to convince Marie to go with her to see Rollo, and when they entered the front door of Ammo Knights, her cousin held the expression of someone going to get teeth pulled rather than visiting a friend – albeit in less-than-desirable circumstances.

Sheldon was waiting for them, nervously fiddling with the ink tank of a splattershot. “Oh! Hello, hello! Are you feeling better now, Marie?”

“Yeah. I’m good,” Marie shrugged. Her levelled expression curled into a grimace. “ _Too_ good. Probably gonna get dragged back to work soon and everything.”

“Hey, if you want to bluff your way into more sick days, you can do it yourself,” Callie huffed. She’d spent the past week trying to explain her cousin’s absence to their manager. She couldn’t exactly tell them the truth.

“Don’t tempt me.” Marie rolled her eyes. She turned her attention back to the shopkeeper. “How are things, Sheldon?”

“W-well, I’m glad to see you’ve recovered— do we, or you, or _anyone_ , have any plans for what to do next?” Sheldon asked, his pitch rising to a squeak as he glanced around anxiously, as if he expected someone to be hiding behind a shelf listening to them. “I can’t have that boy contained in the back of my store forever. I know we need to keep an eye on him, but I can’t open the testing range while he’s there!”

“Don’t worry, Sheldon, we’re trying to think of something,” Callie assured, although she was equally as concerned. It seemed cruel of them to lock Rollo up here for so long – he’d been here for a week already. If she was trapped in an enclosed space for that long she’d probably lose her mind. “It’s just… difficult, y’know? It’s only us three now. It’d be unfair to try and drag Jake back into this again.” She cast a glance at Marie, but her cousin said nothing.

“Yes, yes, I understand.” Sheldon nodded sadly. “I will try my best to think of a solution also!”

“Thanks, Shel, you’re a real pal.” Callie held her fist above the counter, and Sheldon only looked confused for a brief moment before reaching out with one of his short arms to bump his hand against hers.

“I’m here to help!” he chirped, swiftly adjusting his goggles. “I’m guessing you’re here to see Agent 4?” While Marie referred to agents 3 and 4 by their codes as nicknames, Callie was pretty sure Sheldon only called them that because he was, well, a huge nerd.

“Yep! If that’s no trouble,” Callie nodded.

“Okey-dokey. I’ll unlock the room now!” A set of keys rattled in his grip as Sheldon scurried towards the door to the testing range.

Callie skipped after him, being careful as always in this place that her hair didn’t smack into any of the display stands. She glanced back to see Marie hesitate before following them, much less enthusiastically.

The door was closed behind them. Sheldon was probably guarding the place like his life depended on it while the entrance was unlocked. Callie led the way through the arena to the second section, where the dummies that normally slid back and forth when this place was in use were stationary, and a large glass bowl stood in the far corner. Rollo was curled up at the bottom of it, possibly asleep.

She felt a little guilty for disturbing him if he was – it didn’t look very comfortable in there – but deemed this important enough. “Wakey wakey, sleepyhead!” she called, lifting a hand to knock on the side of the bowl. “This isn’t the time to take a na—”

_Wham._

The imprisoned inkling flung himself violently at the glass.

Callie squeaked in shock, jumping back. For the first time today, she was glad Marie had kept her distance or Callie would almost certainly have crashed into her.

Rollo remained frozen against the spherical wall for a long moment, that same look of hostility and rage in his eye he’d held when attacking them before. A second passed. He squeezed his eyes shut, sinking back to the base of the globe and curling his arms around his head, clawing at his ears. “I’m… s… sorry…”

_He’s fighting it. The octarians are trying to control him._

“No, no, it’s not your fault!” Callie insisted, approaching the bowl more warily this time. She placed a hand carefully on the glass, bracing herself for if he lunged again; he couldn’t hurt her while he was inside the bowl. “You okay?”

“S-stop…” His voice shook, as if he was trying to speak but whatever had a hold of him wanted him silenced. “Stop _talking_ , you’re making it _worse_...!”

Callie opened her mouth to reply, then realised that was the exact opposite of what he’d just asked of her. Instead, despite no longer being in his line of sight, she nodded, kneeling down on the concrete. Maybe this would pass soon. She looked back, throwing a somewhat helpless glance at her cousin.

Marie had paled, staring blankly at the scene in front of her with a clear look of distress in her eyes. She was frozen to the spot, arms raised slightly as if she were about to have to defend herself from an attack. When she eventually registered Callie’s sympathetic glance, a quiet gasp escaped her, having briefly forgotten to breathe.

Her gaze dropped to the floor. Her lip quivered. She shook her head, taking a small step back before turning to escape from the situation.

“Mar—” Callie started instinctually, reaching out for her despite the fact that she was too far away. She stopped her voice, aware that their friend was still writhing in his prison. _She probably won’t go far. I’ll catch up to her soon and make sure she’s okay._

Rollo’s laboured breathing was starting to calm down, thankfully. He relaxed somewhat, letting his arms fall back to the ground. “I’m… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…!”

“It’s not you,” Callie said quietly, relieved when the sound of her voice didn’t spark a bad reaction this time. As far as she could remember, he’d never shown any kind of vulnerability in front of her before. This whole mess was taking its toll on him, too. “The octarians did those things, not you.”

“I want it to stop – I want them all to stop.”

“I know.” She sighed. “Me too.”

There was a long moment of silence. Callie adjusted her sitting position so that she wasn’t putting so much weight on her legs against the concrete ground. She cast another worried glance behind her, but there was no sign of Marie now.

Taking in a deep breath and letting it out a moment later, Rollo finally pushed himself up into somewhat of a sitting position. He was shaky and sweaty, and he kept his gaze on the ground, as if he still couldn’t bear to look at her. “I’ve been trying to work out what they want. Why they’re doing this. I think—I think it’s easier to work out which are my real thoughts in here.”

Callie nodded silently, encouraging him to continue. He barely even looked like the same person anymore. This was Rollo, their Agent 4, who’d bravely faced the octarians in order to save her and all of Inkopolis – and she’d never seen him look so _scared_ before.

“Th-they want you and Marie, I think. Just you guys. They want me to kill you.” He folded his hands together, shuddering as he spoke. “I don’t know if there’s a reason. I never hear it.”

“Just us?” Callie’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What about Jake? And the zapfish?”

“He… he tried to interfere. I haven’t thought about zapfish at all – maybe they were using me to get them as bait.” Rollo managed to hold a blank expression for a few seconds before he groaned, burying his face in his hands. “They made me _shoot_ him. He lost his _arm_ …!”

“He’s okay! He’s okay, really. Arms grow back.” Callie said hastily, afraid to see the strong person she knew crumble any further. “We’ve been checking up on him, so we know he’s alright. He just misses you, that’s all. I have his number; I can call him, if you want.”

“No,” Rollo shook his head, not even having to think about his response. He took another deep breath. “No, I don’t want him to hear me like this. Thank you, though.”

“Alright. We’re gonna go see him after this, anyway, so I’ll tell him you said hi.”

“Sure.” He frowned at her words, specifically the word _we_. “Marie was here too, wasn’t she? Dammit, I hurt her too.”

Callie didn’t know how to respond in a way that wouldn’t make him feel worse. “She’s… I don’t know. I should go find where she went. She’s just… taking a little while to get over what happened, I guess.”

“Go find her.” Rollo gave a small nod. “I’ll be fine. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You sure? About being fine, that is.”

“To both, really. Yeah.”

“… Okay.” Reluctantly, Callie climbed back to her feet. “You hang in there, dude. We’ll find some way to sort all this mess out soon.” She kept promising that to people, but was it true? “Then you’ll be able to go home and get Jake that ice cream you promised him!”

At the very least, that managed to draw a small laugh out of him. “Sure.”

Callie offered a wave as she walked away – which wasn’t returned, he still wasn’t looking at her – and thought more over what he’d said. The octarians only wanted her and Marie? What was so special about them? If it was just Octavio holding a grudge against the people who’d defeated him, surely a better target would be Agent 3? Not that she wanted Faye to be in danger – or actually knew where she and Gramps were at this moment in time. Heck, if it was just for revenge, why had the octarians brainwashed Rollo instead of just killing him? What made her and Marie _different_? The two agents were far better at fighting than they were. The only thing that really stood out about them was that they could sing.

_The Calamari Inkantation._

Callie froze mid-step.

Both times they’d fought Octavio, that song had helped win the fight. The ancient tune she and Marie sung together that no cephalopod could help but at least tap their foot along to. It caused enough of a distraction to weaken Octavio so the agents could beat him.

Octavio wanted them out of the way. He wanted his weakness _gone_.

She shook her head, trying to get rid of the sudden realisation. Suddenly she felt very unsafe, as if there was an octarian waiting in every shadow to jump out and assassinate her.

_Don’t be stupid. It’s just your imagination._ Callie sucked in a deep breath, continuing on her path. _I need to find Marie._

It wasn’t difficult. As Callie suspected, she hadn’t gone far, not wanting to face Sheldon in her current state. Marie was huddled in the far corner of the first training area, her back against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest and head buried in her arms.

Skirting around one of the dummies, Callie approached her semi-hiding spot. “Marie…?”

No response. No telling her to go away. Not even a reaction.

Glancing around at the various brightly-coloured targets as she tried to decide what to do, Callie eventually settled for sitting down next to her, not so close as to make contact in any way but enough that her presence would be known. “You okay?”

Slowly, after much hesitation, Marie lifted her head. She didn’t look at her cousin, but her eyes were wet with unshed tears which she kept trying to blink away. Her voice cracked so much when she tried to speak that it came out mostly as a breath. “What are we supposed to do, Cal?”

Callie didn’t know how to answer that. She’d been telling everyone that they’d find a way to fix everything, and both she and Marie knew that was a lie. “I don’t know.” Everything was a mess, there was nothing they could do about it, and she felt so _exhausted_ from trying to hold herself together and remain optimistic for everyone else’s sake. Someone needed to believe things would work out, and until anyone else stepped forward to take the role, it was going to have to fall to Callie. “I’m sorry for dragging you out here. I wouldn’t have if I knew that was going to happen.”

Marie stared at the ground, pulling her arms tighter around herself. “I just panicked for stupid reasons. It’s—it’s fine.”

“It wasn’t…” Callie’s voice faded, knowing she wouldn’t be able to convince her. _He scared me too._ She wasn’t the one who’d been hurt in that fight, though. Perhaps that was why Marie was taking this so hard. The best thing to do for now, she decided, was to take one step at a time. She might not be able to solve everything, but at the very least she could try to help her cousin. “Want a hug?”

For the first time since the slightly one-sided conversation started, Marie’s gaze fell on her; she looked a little surprised, and probably for good reason. Callie usually didn’t _ask_ for hugs, she’d just pull her unsuspecting victim into them. Marie had never been anywhere near as affectionate a person as her cousin, and would try her best to avoid contact with anyone she wasn’t close with, but given how distressed she’d been recently, Callie wanted to make sure the walls hadn’t gone up completely. The last thing she wanted to do was upset her even more.

The movement was so subtle that Callie barely noticed it, but Marie gave a small nod. She really must have felt bad if all of her trademark Marie Sass had vanished.

Well, there was her permission, at least. Marie made little effort to move as Callie pulled her into an awkward sideways-embrace, the material of her pink cardigan making a quiet scraping noise against the smooth wall behind them.

“It’s okay to be scared,” Callie said quietly, hoping her voice wouldn’t carry too far. The last thing she wanted was to accidentally broadcast her cousin’s insecurities to Rollo or Sheldon. “Everything seems like a mess now, but… it won’t be forever.”

She had no idea if that was the right or wrong thing to say. Whichever one it was, the reaction it pulled out of Marie was to press her face into Callie’s shoulder and let out a strangled sob.

No matter how much they bickered, threw insults, or mocked each other on live television, if one of them needed a shoulder to cry on, the other was there. It had been a very long time since it was in this order, though, and Callie began to wonder if the whole squidnapping incident from a few months ago had affected Marie more than she’d let on. A new wave of guilt crashed over her.

_No. No time for dwelling on that now. We have bigger fish to fry._

Callie, patient only when she felt it absolutely necessary, sat quietly and rubbed small circles on her cousin’s back as she let Marie cry herself out. Part of her wanted to make some kind of joke in an attempt to lift the mood, but the sensible part of her brain reminded her that this was probably not the time for that. Banter only worked when Marie was willing to participate in it; otherwise picking fun at her would only make things worse.

Instead, Callie waited until the sniffling stopped, and Marie slid out of her grip, rubbing at her eyes. “Better?”

“Not really. Headache’s back.” Marie slumped against the wall, stretching out her legs. She took a long breath; her face was a tear-streaked mess now, and her eyes were puffy, but she no longer held the expression of utter distress. “Thanks, Cal.”

“You’re welcome, for me apparently not actually doing anything.” Callie gave her arm a gentle shove. _Aha!_ Finally, that dragged a small smile out of Marie, even if it was a slightly apathetic one. “You’re free to cry on me whenever.”

“Next time I’ll have to wear makeup for the full effect.” There was that hint of good old Marie sass as she ran a thumb under one eye. She pressed her hands together for a brief moment before sighing. “Maybe I do feel a little better, but we’re not any closer to sorting this.”

“One step at a time,” Callie stated, echoing her own thoughts from earlier.

“Yeah.” Marie made the effort for a half-hearted smile this time. “I really wish we had a decent way of contacting Gramps. If Agent 3 were here…”

“I had to send him snail mail and hope he’s actually home to check his mailbox.” Callie pulled a wry face. “Are you _sure_ you don’t have Faye’s number?”

“Nope. I know I’d never hear the end from you if I did.”

“Darn. To think we might have saved the world by now if you weren’t such a useless lesbian.”

_That_ drew a snort of laughter out of Marie.

 

* * *

 

After a decently long walk and Callie shoving a bottle of vending machine water into her hands, Marie felt that she was at least presentable enough to hide the fact that she’d been crying. It was very rare that she let life get the better of her like that; the last time she’d had a meltdown that bad was shortly after discovering that Callie had been kidnapped, and her cousin hadn’t been around to comfort her that time.

She hoped Jake wouldn’t notice, because the last thing she wanted was someone else making a fuss; Sheldon had already given her a worried glance as she tried but failed to leave Ammo Knights without him seeing her face. Marie still had Jake down as someone who wasn’t super perceptive, though, given his track record, and she’d probably looked like death for most of the past week anyway after that injury.

To her surprise, when he opened the door to Callie’s unnecessarily loud knocking, Jake didn’t look a whole lot better than she did. That was probably understandable, given how bad his injury had been, but Marie could swear he’d looked better than his current state so far. Hopefully the poor kid wasn’t coming down with something – both for his sake and theirs. Now wasn’t the time to go catching a cold.

He still greeted them warmly and invited them in, though, and to Marie’s relief either didn’t notice the tiredness in her eyes or chose not to comment on it. Callie was as enthusiastic as ever, suggesting ways to spend their time that day and suggesting they order pizza, again, to which Marie reminder her that they’d done that almost every day so far. Despite being a big fan of pizza, she was starting to get sick of it, and she could tell from his forced expression that Jake felt the same even if he was being too polite to voice it.

The lunch debate soon settled on making food instead for once, which could wait – dear cod, was it really that early still? What time had Callie dragged her out of bed again? – and with that sorted, Marie decided to make herself at home on the couch. Time for another fun day of watching television, or the other two trying to work out which video games could be played with only one hand, or whatever else Callie decided to throw them into today.

Jake settled on the far side of the sofa, fiddling with the empty sleeve of his jumper for a moment. It was clear he had something on his mind, and it was only when he spoke that Marie realised what she’d read in him earlier wasn’t illness, but the result of extreme worry.

“Are we going to do something about that machine soon? The one the octarians are trying to control Rollo with?”

“We?” Marie chose that word to focus on for now, not too keen on answering the rest. “I think you’re officially let off from getting dragged into this mess now, with a missing arm.” She didn’t even want to think about the alternative; that they might still be trying to get this all sorted out by the time his arm grew back. That could take months.

“Well—okay, are you guys going to do something about it soon?” Of course that was his next logical question.

Marie kept her gaze firmly on the coffee table, hoping he wouldn’t realise just how stressed she was about this whole thing. “I don’t think there’s a lot we _can_ do.”

“But we have to do _something_!” Jake insisted, falling back into the ‘we’ again. He definitely wasn’t giving up. “Rollo has to be stuck in a bowl until that machine is gone! Can’t you destroy it somehow?”

A hopeless snort of laughter escaped her at the sheer magnitude of the suggestion. “It’s probably somewhere deep within the octarian base! They wouldn’t leave it lying around on the side of the road where anyone could access it.”

“But you guys are Agents 1 and 2!” Jake twisted his position on the sofa so he could look over the back of it; seeking out Callie in the hopes that she might be more enthusiastic for a daring mission. “Couldn’t you sneak in and destroy it?”

Marie couldn’t see Callie from her current position, but given the subdued way Jake shrank back down into the cushions, she probably didn’t hold any more of a determined expression than Marie did. Both of them knew entering Cephalon HQ alone and without aid would be suicide. “If we were able to do that,” Marie pointed out grimly, “we would’ve gone to look for Agent 4 the second we knew the octarians had him.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Jake’s voice was quiet, and Marie could no longer tell if the question was aimed at her or not. The short inkling somehow looked even smaller than usual. “You can’t keep Rollo locked up forever. I just want him to come home…”

Unable to give any reply that wouldn’t make things worse, Marie bit her cheek, remaining silent.

Callie, obviously detecting the tension in the room, decided to drop herself down in the space between them on the couch. Marie had to move her arm before it got crushed, and shrugged off the tentacle of Callie’s hair that had fallen on her.  “We’ll find a way to fix this somehow!” Callie stated; practically a rehearsed line by this point. “Don’t worry about your brother. He’ll be home in no time!”

“Right…” Jake sighed, not sounding like he believed her at all. He stared at the table for a moment, eyes narrowing a smidgen. His hand instinctively went to the empty sleeve again, as if he expected the arm to suddenly have reappeared. “I know you guys just got here, but… is it okay if I go sleep for a while?”

He looked tired. He’d probably been awake half the night with worry, a feeling Marie knew too well by this point. Callie spoke up before she had the chance to.

“Sure thing! You look like you could use a nap.” She reached over to pat his shoulder, being careful to avoid touching any further down his barely-remaining arm. “I’ll wake you up when lunch is ready, ‘kay?”

“’kay. Thanks.” He gave a small smile of gratitude before climbing up from the sofa and leaving the room.

Callie scooted over on the couch now that the space was freed up, finally giving Marie some breathing room. Sure, Jake was injured and still didn’t know them super well, but Callie might have overestimated just how much space he needed because of that. She cast a glance over her shoulder as a distant door closed, a little more harshly than necessary, and when she turned back to her cousin she let out a small sigh. “I feel kinda bad for him, but what else can we say?”

“Mm.” Marie rested her head on one hand against the arm of the couch. “I’d suggest taking him to see Agent 4, but…” That probably wouldn’t end much better than their visit this morning. Marie only hoped Jake wouldn’t share the same fear she had when he finally saw his brother again.

Knowing what she meant, Callie gave a wry smile. “Yeah. I just wish there was more we could do.” She brought her feet up onto the sofa to sit more comfortably, and Marie was about to chastise her for doing that in someone else’s house before remembering she’d seen Jake do that more than once, so it probably didn’t matter. “I know it’s a stupid idea, but maybe we could go take out the machine.”

Marie’s gaze snapped to her in alarm. “No way.” She shook her head. “There’s no way we could get into Cephalon HQ unnoticed, find some kind of machine we don’t even know the look of, and destroy it without attracting attention. The place will be flooded with octarians.”

“Yeah… stupid idea,” Callie gave a half-hearted laugh, sinking further into the sofa. “We need to come up with some kind of plan. I know he’s willing to do it for the sake of all of us, but I don’t know how long Rollo can put up with being stuck in that bowl.”

“I _know_ ,” Marie said with a groan. “And I’m _trying_ to think of some way we can fix this… all we can do for now is hope Gramps or Agent 3 get your message and that Agent 4 can hold out until then.” It was a weak plan, but it was the safest bet.

 

* * *

 

Across the house, Jake listened to their conversation with an ear pressed to his bedroom door. He felt bad about eavesdropping, but he knew they wouldn’t be honest to him. Even if they had good intentions, he hated it.

He felt like crying. The tears welled in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. Callie and Marie weren’t going to do _anything_ to help his brother? The people they were waiting for might never even show up, given that it sounded as if they barely even had contact with them.

Moving away from the door, Jake stubbornly rubbed at his eyes before climbing onto his bed, as quietly as possible. It was time to pretend to be asleep until either he actually was or someone came to wake him up.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Callie's prediction on why Octavio wants them gone is _almost_ correct. Not exactly, though. She'll figure it out.
> 
> I have an entire overcomplicated and probably not scientifically sound theory about inklings evolving mammal-like features from them copying humans and also having to raise their young on land rather than in the sea, but tl;dr that's why the squids in this have periods, I guess. If you turn yourself into people you have to suffer the people problems.


	13. Every Squid Has Their Day

Inkopolis was always quiet early in the morning. Most inklings didn’t like getting up early, and the rest of Delilah’s team was no exception. This was the only time of day every mode was available for league practice, though, before the stages were cleared for turf war, and that meant an early start most days for Team Geode.

They’d thrown in the towel early today, though. No matter what team they were up against, it was near impossible to win when they were down a player. Now the remaining three sat outside the café, weapons cased. Harper had been out like a light shortly after they arrived; the small inkling was slumped over the table, snoring softly, her long-billed cap pushed off its usual placement. Perhaps she’d gone to bed late last night.

“Should we wake her up?” Ada lowered the coffee cup from her face to speak and wiped the froth moustache from her face with a crumpled napkin. She’d already downed half the drink, and Delilah was amazed she hadn’t burnt her throat doing so. Ada tentatively reached out to move aside one diagonally-sliced tentacle of Harper’s hair and grimaced. “She’s drooling on the table.”

Delilah pulled a similar face, but she couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled inside her. “Let her rest. She probably wore herself out with all that dodge-rolling earlier.”

Harper was the youngest on the team, at only sixteen, but she was a monster with the dualie squelchers. Ada was their goo-tuber-wielding sniper, with deadly aim and a glare to match whenever she felt like intimidating their opponents. She kept her hair tied up in a bun-ponytail, and currently her designer headphones rested around her neck.

Delilah was the team leader, and their main defence with her tenta brella. It was her job to protect the team, but it seemed that was more difficult outside of matches.

“I hope Rollo’s okay,” she muttered aloud, mostly to herself. It had been a while since she’d last spoken with Jake; perhaps she should’ve given him her number so he could contact them if anything happened, since he hadn’t been responding to Harper, but surely Rollo would message her if he returned?

“What d’you think happened to him?” Ada asked, her voice echoed by the cup which was in front of her face once more. After taking another swig of coffee, she frowned. “Like, why would he run away from home? It’s just Jake there, and he can’t be that bad. You think he got kidnapped?”

“Cod, I hope not.” But Jake hadn’t given any indication of _why_ his brother was missing, and there was a chance he didn’t know either… who in their right mind would _kidnap_ an inkling? Surely none of the other league teams were willing to play that dirty, and even if they were, why would they target one of the physically strongest members of the team? So if it wasn’t anything to do with the team, then why…?

“Perhaps we should make some cheesy ‘missing’ posters or something,” Ada suggested, only half as a joke. She placed her mug down – empty? Already? – and sighed. “I feel kinda bad just… continuing on with a hole in our team like nothing happened. It’s like we expect him to appear as a ghost and help us or something.”

“Ugh, _don’t_.” Delilah didn’t like that implication; that their teammate could be dead.

Her exclamation dragged Harper out of her impromptu nap, and she quickly lifted her head, a trail of saliva still hanging from her chin. “Whuh…? Someone saw a ghost?”

“Nope. No ghosts.” Ada tactfully slid one of the unused napkins towards her. “Don’t worry about it, Harp.”

Delilah, deciding she’d rather not watch Harper clean up her slobbery mess, looked out across the desolate square. It was still too early for the crowds to be out, and only a few of the shops were open, others with the shutters only open enough to let light through. There wasn’t a whole lot to do this early in the morning; for now, the plan was just to wait until ranked battles opened and hope they might get put on the same teams by sheer luck.

As she watched, a shadow swept across the square. Delilah instinctively looked up, half expecting a low-flying plane despite how quiet it was. What she saw, however, made her question if getting up so early was starting to affect her too, until she heard Harper’s amazed outburst.

“Whoa! _Aliens_!”

“Harper, don’t be stu—” Ada’s condescending remark was cut off as she caught sight of what the others had seen. “What the heck!?”

The thing flying through the sky looked like a giant UFO, but with the glare of the sunlight reflecting off whatever it was made of, it was difficult to tell exactly what it was. It hovered to a stop just above Deca Tower. The Great Zapfish, curled around the spire, gazed up at the object with a low cry, and immediately unwrapped itself from its perch.

At the sound, the few jellyfish and even fewer inklings currently occupying the square lifted their heads to look at the events unfolding. Murmurs of unease permeated the quiet atmosphere.

The bottom of the UFO opened up, and a small group of the strangest-looking creatures Delilah had ever seen floated down from it. A net was stretched between them. They were headed for the great zapfish, which swam away slowly through the air to escape.

“They’re after the zapfish!” Delilah’s chair scraped the concrete as she jumped to her feet. She reached out and caught her weapon case before it could topple over.

“Should we do something?” Harper glanced back and forth between her two teammates, bouncing in her seat. She looked ready to spring up and attempt to save the day at the drop of a hat.

“What are we supposed to do?” Ada pointed out, looking more terrified than determined. “We can’t get our weapons out in the square; that’s illegal!”

“I’m pretty sure stealing the city’s main source of power is _more_ illegal,” Delilah insisted.

“ _Heck_ yeah!” Harper sprung from her chair, whipping her dualies out before another word of protest could be said. “Time to _break the law_!”

“Oh dear cod,” Ada groaned. She complied, though, reaching for the bulky case that held her goo tuber.

Their small team was ready in seconds, charging towards the tower. Delilah tried for formulate some kind of plan in her mind – what were they supposed to do, threaten these creatures? Could they even understand inkling? – but drew up a blank. She knew how to play out a league match, but this was something completely different. They just had to find some way to protect the zapfish.

“ _WAIT_!”

Their path was blocked as Sheldon burst from his store, waving his arms frantically. Delilah halted, holding our her arm to tell the others to stop and taking the full impact of Harper crashing into her for her efforts.

The short crab looked incredibly panicked as he sized up the three weapon-wielding inklings before him. “P-please, do not try and fight them! This is not a match, and—and they’re very dangerous!”

“What, you expect us to just _give_ them the zapfish!?” Delilah spat back incredulously.

“No, no, not at all!” Sheldon shook his head, having to push his helmet back up when it fell down over his eyes. “I’ve messaged for help, but, ah, worst comes to worst, we’ll be able to get it back!”

“What? How?”

“Um, w-well…” He glanced around frantically. Sheldon didn’t want to answer that, for whatever reason. There were more of those floating creatures emerging from the UFO like salmonids from a mothership, floating down towards the square. “If you really, _really_ want to help, please protect the civilians! You,” he pointed at Delilah. “That’s a tenta brella you’re holding! A wondrous piece of equipment, that is—ah! No time!” Sheldon quickly shook himself, as if fighting the urge to go on a ramble about her weapon. “Get everyone to safety, please!”

As Sheldon scurried away, motioning to some nearby jellyfish to take shelter inside Ammo Knights, Delilah exchanged glances with her team. Harper’s lip curled, showing the gap of her missing tooth. She wanted to fight whatever these creatures were and stop them from stealing the Great Zapfish.

“I pick saving people over fighting aliens,” Ada offered when nobody else spoke. “Besides, the ones going after the zapfish are out of range, even for me.”

She was right. Delilah let out a defeated sigh. “Alright. I don’t know what these things are, but the less we have to fire our weapons in the square, the better.” She looked over to the tower, where a few alarmed-looking security guards burst from the doors. They wouldn’t be able to do much to protect the zapfish either. Delilah addressed her team, taking on the tone of voice she held when giving them the plan for a league match. “Herd everyone into the nearest store and only engage the enemy if you need to.”

Ada nodded and Harper gave an overzealous salute, still looking a little disappointed at the change of plans. The zapfish had vanished twice before and had returned both times. Nobody knew why it had disappeared, but if it had been stolen on those occasions and somebody managed to get it back, there was nothing to worry about, right?

The three inklings split up, trying their best to ignore the distressed cries of the zapfish in the distance.

 

* * *

 

Jake had just finished using the bathroom – he was finally getting used to the hand-washing technique with only one hand to wash – when the power cut out, leaving him with only the sliver of light from the bathroom door. _Uh oh._ That wasn’t good.

He groped around for the towel, and used it to pull the door open. The house was dead silent without the hum of the fridge.

The power hadn’t shut off since they got Rollo back. With him imprisoned at Ammo Knights, the octarians couldn’t use him to steal the zapfish, and as far as Jake knew they’d recovered most of the ones he stole before. So why was the power cutting out now?

Shaking his head and hoping it was just a faulty wire in the neighbourhood that’d get fixed, Jake made his way to the kitchen, taking an apple from the fruit bowl. Hopefully eating fruit for breakfast would somehow balance out the copious amount of pizza he’d eaten in the past week. He didn’t want to see even a drop of melted cheese for a few days, at least.

Sitting back in the wooden seat as he crunched through his breakfast, Jake looked at the clock on the wall. As much as he’d normally hate being awake this early, he had ended up taking a rather long nap yesterday after all. It was still an hour before the time Callie had promised to visit; one of her now-regular check-ins to make sure he was doing okay. She’d all but guaranteed Marie wouldn’t show up until at least noon, if she was joining them at all.

Jake was still seething over what he’d heard yesterday, though. The two cousins were just going to let his brother rot in a prison and wait for some miracle to fix things. Ever since overhearing their conversation, Jake had been trying to formulate some kind of plan, but he knew they’d think anything he thought of wouldn’t work.

What if it _did_?

He knew his one main idea was stupid and impulsive, and that was why he hadn’t attempted it yet. _Wait for Callie, she might help!_ Jake knew she wouldn’t, though. She’d just try to talk him out of it.

In that case, he didn’t have much time. He had to act _now_.

Tossing his apple core in the bin on the way, Jake headed for his room to find some clothes to get changed into. Hopefully he wasn’t making a huge mistake.

 

* * *

 

The whole neighbourhood seemed quieter than before as Callie made her way down the now-familiar street. That was odd. This was a little earlier than most of the days she’d visited, though, so perhaps it was just not as busy at this time of day? The entire neighbourhood was asleep, or they were all at the park for a barbeque! … Okay, maybe that last one was a bit unlikely.

She arrived at Jake’s front door, only a few minutes after the time she’d promised – fashionably late – and knocked on it with the same short rhythm she always used. He’d recognise it by now, she was sure. Callie hummed quietly to herself, waiting for an answer, but half a minute passed with nothing.

“Maybe he’s still asleep,” she muttered to herself. Jake did strike her as the late-sleeping type, though maybe not quite at Marie’s level. With a shrug, Callie pressed the doorbell instead, hoping that might wake him up.

No sound. She frowned and pressed it again, but got the same result. Did the doorbell not work, or was the power out again?

“Weird…” Callie checked her phone, but there were no unread messages. She tried knocking on the door again, but received the same silence. Perhaps he was a… heavy sleeper. Maybe.

Okay. New tactic. She scrolled her contact list and tapped on ‘ _Squishy’_ , holding the phone to her ear as the dialling tone droned from the device. _Maybe I should just let him sleep, if he’s that tired, but I should at least check he’s okay._

The tone cut off abruptly after a few seconds with a _call ended_ beep.

_Huh?_ Callie frowned at the phone screen as it switched back to the contact icon; a selfie of her and Jake pulling stupid faces that she’d taken a few days ago while Marie rolled her eyes at them off-camera. That call had cut off surprisingly fast. She waited a few moments, in case Jake had just woken up and was on his way to open the door, but when it didn’t open after another twenty seconds she tried calling again.

This time, she was greeted with the ‘ _this number is unavailable right now’_ message. Had he switched his phone off? Why?

What was happening? Jake knew she was coming at this time, and if he wasn’t in his house, where would he be?

A thought crept its way into her mind. He _had_ seemed pretty upset yesterday when they told him they couldn’t go after the machine…

_He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t try and do it himself. He’s not_ that _reckless. Is he?_

The opening beats of _Ink Me Up_ startled her in the quiet atmosphere as her phone sung back into life. Relief came to her for only a moment as she checked the screen, and soon the feeling faded. It wasn’t Jake calling her; it was _Marie_.

Callie answered immediately. “What’s up, M?” She didn’t dare say her cousin’s full name out loud, even though there didn’t seem to be anyone around to hear her. She probably already looked suspicious enough standing around outside someone’s house for ages.

“Callie, where are you?” The question was abrupt, and Marie’s voice held a hint of the grogginess to it that suggested she’d just woken up, but more noticeably, she sounded _angry_.

“Outside Jake’s house. He’s not—”

“I’m going to boil that damn crab _alive_ next time I see him!” Oh dear. Something had really set her off today, and from that vague description, it sounded like Sheldon was the target of her fury. “There’s an emergency and he sends me a fucking text! _Me_! At half eight in the morning! While I’m asleep! That _isn’t going to wake me up_!”

“Whoa, hey, calm down,” Callie said hastily, waving her free hand even though Marie couldn’t see her. She heard her cousin let out an angry huff on the other end of the line. “What emergency?”

“He didn’t even _try_ to message you. Oh my _cod_.”

“Deep breaths.” Callie chewed her lip, anxious for what news she might get. If it was from Sheldon, did that mean something had happened to Rollo?

“Don’t even—” Marie held back the remark, and actually did as she suggested, taking a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I’m calm. Some octarians appeared in the square this morning and stole the Great Zapfish. Again.”

“ _Again_?” There was disbelief in Callie’s voice, but honestly, after the recent events… she’d half expected this to happen eventually. That didn’t mean it wasn’t bad, though. “Well, we managed to get it back the last two times, right?”

“The last two times aren’t _now_.” It was possible to hear the defeat in Marie’s voice. “I’m just—I’m done. I’m so done.”

“Don’t give up, Mar—” Callie stopped herself. “Sorry, outside. We _can’t_ give up yet. For everyone.”

“But we can’t _do_ anything!”

“We can still _try_.” With a long look at the house she stood next to, Callie frowned. There was no way she could tell Marie about what she suspected right now; not only was she worked up enough already, but honestly, Callie was afraid of how she’d react. Marie hadn’t always had the nicest things to say about Jake in the past. Besides, maybe Callie’s theory was wrong? “You’re awake now; can you head over to Tentakeel Outpost? I’ll be there ASAP.”

There was almost a wary hint to Marie’s voice when she responded. “Why…?”

“Because…” Oh boy, Callie wasn’t good at coming up with excuses on the spot. “I have… an idea? It’s, uh, too confidential for me to say in this public area. I’ll tell you when we get there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know, I said in the tags that Pearl was the one with the potty mouth, but according to a search I did of the whole story there's 7 instances of the F word and only 5 of them are Pearl. White-haired squids have terrible language.
> 
> Happy Valentine's Day. I thought we were going to land on a Pearl & Marina chapter on this date but sadly it was one off. Still, lesbians next chapter I guess ??? Better late than never.
> 
> Also, here's a reminder that (some of) the characters have refs [here.](https://sta.sh/21xjfzpd3rzn) There's actually a few more since the last time I linked this in the story... but not all. Sorry Ada. I'll finish yours one day.


	14. Never Catching a Break

“The great zapfish is missing again! Can you believe it, Marina? I wonder where it went this time!”

“No idea, but I hope it returns soon! Apologies to anyone with power outages while it’s gone.”

“That totally rad restaurant on main street does really good takeaway if you want to get a hot meal when the stove don’t work.”

“Pearl, no unpaid advertisements on air!”

Marina couldn’t help but glance up at their pre-recorded broadcast on the big screen as Pearl pulled her by the hand on a detour around the crowds. Worried murmurs hummed throughout the square from the gathered inklings, a few more recent octolings among their midst, and the spire of Deca Tower looked bare without its usual giant resident.

She did wonder what had happened to the zapfish. They’d been instructed not to mention it in their broadcast to prevent panic, but there had been reports of a UFO and some odd tentacle-like creatures in the square this morning, and that had likely been the suspects. Marina knew exactly what those creatures were just from the description, but she had no idea how to explain that to anyone without being questioned herself, and she was afraid of what might happen if any of the inklings found out that she had been part of the _first_ great zap-napping a little over two years ago. Perhaps she could talk to Pearl about it when they got home later, away from listening ears. Pearl and the Captain were the only inklings who knew of her past life, and Pearl was the only one who trusted her completely no matter what she may have done before coming to the surface.

As if sensing her anxiety, Pearl squeezed her hand a little tighter. “C’mon. Let’s get to the store before somebody spots us.”

Admittedly, Pearl had a pretty good disguise, although anyone who looked for too long or just paid enough attention to their broadcasts might be able to recognise her. Her hair was tied back, albeit in the tiniest ponytail Marina had ever seen, and she had an almost comically large pair of sunglasses over her eyes. A not-quite-so-fresh-looking cap she’d swiped from one of the staff at the studio was pulled backwards over her head. The rest of her outfit was just the dark t-shirt and scuffed jeans she’d walked to work in that morning, but venturing through town at a busier time of day required extra stealth.

Marina’s current attire wasn’t quite so grandiose, just her change of clothes and a hoodie Pearl had thrown at her before they left the building. Despite being an incredibly loose fit on Pearl, it still didn’t properly fit Marina, and the ends of her shirt hung out under the hem. The hood could hide her octoling hair, though, and she decided she might as well humour her girlfriend when Pearl decided to do something cute like share her clothes.

Their manager liked all their broadcasts to be live and them to be available in the studio for recordings between announcements, but today they’d pre-recorded them all that morning and she’d granted them the rest of the day off, which felt like a rare occasion these days. Of course, Pearl’s first suggestion was that they go and mess around in turf war – and probably completely ruin the rest of the room’s concentration, which was what always happened when a couple of celebs dropped in to join them – but the small inkling had managed to break one of her dualies on their last turf adventure and had procrastinated getting them repaired until the day she wanted to go back. Typical Pearl. Hopefully it would be a quick enough fix; Sheldon was very good at his job.

The bell chimed as Pearl shoved the Ammo Knights door open more roughly than necessary. Sheldon was at the counter, scribbling something down at lightning speed, but immediately looked up at the sound. “Hello, welcome to—oh!” Even if nobody in town had recognised them, clearly Sheldon did. He quickly glanced around, checking there was nobody else in the store to overhear as the door swung shut. “M-miss Pearl and Miss Marina! Wonderful, truly wonderful to see you!”

“Enough suck-up, crabby.” Pearl finally let go of Marina’s hand, shrugging off the case for her weapons and dumping it on the counter, causing a pot of pens to rattle. “One’s busted.”

“Pearl,” Marina said in her please-be-polite-to-people voice as Sheldon looked rather taken aback by the inkling’s abrasiveness, but a hint of amusement remained in her eyes.

“ _Marina_ ,” Pearl responded in her matching don’t-tell-me-what-to-do voice, sticking out her tongue. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Pearl was the older one here.

Sheldon, clearly deciding against getting involved in their playful spat, examined the dualies Pearl had thrown at him. “Hmm… it looks like one of the tubes has been bent out of shape. I can replace it easily, so if you’d like to come back later this afternoo—”

“I’ll pay you _triple_ if you can get it done in the next half hour,” Pearl interjected. “We finally got a day off, I just wanna give ‘em a quick spin and jump into turf war!”

“Deal!” Sheldon nodded, easily won over by extra money. “Ah, I’m afraid the test range is closed for now, though. I hope that isn’t too much of an inconvenience!”

“It’s _closed_!?” Pearl gaped, as if that was an impossible state. “Why?”

“U-um…” Sheldon looked a little anxious by her questioning, which was odd, but Marina didn’t think too much into it. Sheldon was always a little jumpy. “Re… refurbishments! Gotta make sure the test gear is up to date.” He waved his hands dismissively, picking up the broken weapon and scurrying off to the back room where he kept replacement parts. “I’ll have this fixed for you in no time!”

“Aw, man,” Pearl sighed, sinking against the counter. “Hopefully I’m not too rusty.”

“Don’t worry, Pearlie; I’m sure you’ll be just as good at dodge-rolling into the water even without practice,” Marina teased, giggling as Pearl gave her arm a gentle shove in retaliation.

She might have said something too, but Marina didn’t hear her over the horrific screech her headphones suddenly gave out.

The hood was an extra obstacle to get past to remove them, and in the part of her mind that wasn’t being destroyed by a high-pitched sound, she hoped nobody would enter the store and recognise her while she had to push it off. Pearl watched her reaction with slight alarm before realising that it was, once again, just the headset giving her problems, but as Marina finally managed to get them off, her attention suddenly snapped to something in the other direction.

“Whoa—Marina, did you hear that?”

“I didn’t really hear anything over _this_ ,” Marina pulled a face, shaking the headgear in her hands for emphasis. They were still making the noise; she could hear it faintly even without the headset against her ears.

“Shush, shush, listen,” Pearl insisted, placing a hand on Marina’s arm as if that would affect her hearing ability somehow.

Marina, deciding not to point out that Pearl was the one who asked her a question in the first place, remained silent. She could hear the muffled sounds of Sheldon rummaging around in the back room, but surely that wasn’t what Pearl seemed so concerned over.

Then she heard it; incredibly quiet, not in this room but still within the building. It sounded like a shout. An inkling. A furious one, at that.

Pearl shot Marina an incredulous look behind the sunglasses, eyebrows raising above them. She raised a finger to her lips in a ‘ _shush’_ motion, casting a glance at the doorway Sheldon had vanished into before sidling up to the closed door to the test range.

“ _Pearl_ ,” Marina warned with a hushed voice as her girlfriend tested the handle. What was she _doing_!?

“It’s _locked_.” Pearl called back, keeping her voice low so that Sheldon wouldn’t overhear in the other room. “Who locks the door on someone doing refurbishments? What if they need to use the bathroom?”

“It’s probably locked so nosey inklings don’t try to break in. They might not even be there now.”

“But I can _hear_ someone!” Pearl pressed one of her small ears to the door. “There’s definitely someone in here. They kinda sound hurt or somethin’. What’s going on here!?”

“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for—”

Pearl was back at her side suddenly, plucking the ugly cap from her head and plopping it on Marina’s. She kissed her cheek before dashing away again. “If Sheldon comes back out here, you distract him, Marina. I’m gonna see what he’s hiding!”

“ _Pearl_!” Marina hissed, but Pearl had already transformed into a small squid, squeezing under the gap beneath the door.

_Oh dear._ She had no idea what Pearl was thinking. Marina couldn’t go and drag her back outside, either; the gap between the locked door and the ground was too small even for Marina’s octopus form to fit through.

That left her here, looking like a dazed fish as she hoped that Pearl would come back before Sheldon reappeared from his work.

 

* * *

 

‘Refurbishments’, huh.

For a place that was being ‘refurbished’, this really didn’t look much different. It didn’t look like there was anything happening here at all, actually.

“ _Suspicious_ ,” Pearl muttered quietly to herself as she reverted back into inkling form, pushing the shades up onto her forehead. She made a motion to dust off her clothes then shrugged, deciding these ones were tatty enough that it didn’t matter. Her super sleuth mission was the important thing right now.

Well, she’d successfully squeezed into the room. What now? _Look around, I guess._

With an unnecessarily dramatic tip-toeing walk, Pearl crept her way along the outskirts of the room, keeping an eye out for any ninja construction workers who might be fixing the ceiling. She could definitely hear _something_ ; it sounded like someone in pain. Perhaps there really was work being done in here, and someone had just… fallen, or something. Hopefully there was at least _something_ interesting going in in here, so then she’d at least be justified in her breaking and entering. Pearl wasn’t sure if Sheldon would be willing to ban her from his store, but she’d rather not find out.

All of her questions were answered – sort of – when she turned the corner to the second area where the moving targets usually were. There was a giant snowglobe-like structure in the far corner, and unless her eyes were deceiving her, there was an _inkling_ inside. They were curled up at the base of it, hands clamped over their ears.

“Whoa! Dude, what the heck, are you okay?” The urgent outburst in Pearl’s voice wasn’t matched by the more casual pace she approached with, head tilted slightly in confusion. Why was there an inkling here, in the back room of Ammo Knights, trapped in a container they wouldn’t be able to escape from? “What is Sheldon _doing_ in this place!?”

At the sound of her voice, the inkling visibly flinched. They pushed themselves up from their foetal position – now Pearl could see his face, she swore he looked vaguely familiar, especially with that stupid fringe; maybe he was from one of the league teams – and as soon as he saw her, his expression crossed with a multitude of emotions. The first one was shock. “Who are—how did you get in—” Fear, anxiety, then a look of utter disbelief as the guy realised who she was. “You’re— _what_!?”

Pearl waved her hands. “A’ight, I know I’m, like, totally cool and awesome and famous, but save being starstruck for later, yeah? I don’t know why Sheldon is holding someone hostage but we gotta find a way to get you out of here.”

“No, no, wait!” The blue-haired inkling placed a hand on the side of his container, as if that would restrain her somehow. “No, it’s—I have to stay in here. It’s important. I don’t know how you got in here, but please, you should leave.”

“Eh?” Pearl’s jaw hung slightly open in disbelief as she gave him an otherwise deadpanned look. “Look, dude, I dunno what’s going on here, but you’re not supposed to _want_ to be stuck in a glass bowl!”

“I really don’t, trust me.” He shook his head. Man, this guy looked tired. Pearl wondered how long he’d been trapped in here. “It’s complicated. Please, just go. I don’t know if Sheldon knows you’re in here, but—”

“Nope! Super Stealth Pearl strikes when you least expect it to save the day. And don’t worry, I can understand complicated things. I know a lot of big fancy words.” She put her hands on her hips, trying to stand taller. This was her only intimidation tactic currently, since the other inkling was sitting down. He’d almost definitely tower over her if he wasn’t. He looked pretty tall.

He didn’t look convinced at all; just wary, and desperate. “I really can’t—”

“W-wait! Why are you in here!?” The shrieked voice of Sheldon made Pearl jump, and she looked over her shoulder to see him scurrying towards them, a horrified look on his face.

Marina walked more slowly after him, holding her headset and the cap Pearl had left with her in one hand. She gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry, Pearlie, he saw right through me.” Her gaze travelled to the glass bowl and she stopped in her tracks, brow rising in shock. “What’s…?”

“Ah! You’re here—” Sheldon jumped around, fear in his eyes, as if he hadn’t expected Marina to follow him into the room. He shook it off, probably realising that even if she didn’t see what was in here, Pearl would surely tell her. “Please, i-it’s not what you think, I—”

“And what do we _think_ , huh?” Pearl insisted. Sheldon was someone her standing-tall tactic would actually work on, since he was one of the few non-jellyfish residents of Inkopolis who was actually shorter than her. She gave him an accusing glare. “This all seems pretty _suspicious_ , crabby.”

She half expected Marina to speak up about her abrasiveness, like she often did when it seemed like Pearl was going too far with something, but the octoling remained silent. Marina could tell her aggression was warranted this time; everything looked _very_ fishy, no pun intended.

“It’s not his fault!” The imprisoned inkling spoke up, his voice slightly muffled by the glass. “Please, don’t place any of this on Sheldon. He’s just keeping me here so I don’t hurt anyone else.”

“ _Hurt_ anyone?” Marina echoed. She looked between the unknown inkling and Sheldon with confusion and alarm in her expression. “Why? If he’s a threat, why isn’t he with the police?”

“W-well…” Sheldon pressed his hands together, lacing and unlacing his fingers. It looked like he wanted to back away and hide in his shell, but he knew he couldn’t escape the situation.

“Maybe we should tell them,” the inkling man said after some hesitation. Pearl could’ve sworn his gaze briefly fell on Marina. “They won’t let you off otherwise.”

_Off the hook,_ Pearl thought quietly to herself, but this was no time for making jokes.

“I… hmm. I guess you’re right. Okay.” Sheldon took a deep breath. “Where to start on such a thing…”

It was definitely a wild story, and Pearl felt her brow rise with almost every sentence. This inkling – Rollo, his name was – had recently been kidnapped by octarians and brainwashed by some kind of machine into stealing the zapfish from the city, and had tried to kill his own friends, whom were referred to as Agent 1 an Agent 2. Even while trapped here, the octarians were still trying to regain control of him, but the glass orb kept him from returning to them.

The moment Sheldon said the word “octarians”, his gaze automatically snapped to Marina, who looked horrified at this new information. Pearl instinctively took a step towards her. “Marina had _nothing_ to do with this!”

“No, no, I don’t doubt that!” Sheldon said hurriedly, shaking his head. “I-I do apologise if anything I said made that implication.”

“It ain’t what you _said_ ,” Pearl scoffed. If anyone dared lay as much as a suspicious glance at Marina—

“Pearlie…” Marina said quietly, placing a hand on her shorter girlfriend’s shoulder. “Thanks, but I don’t think he assumed that at all.” She looked back to Rollo. “You say they had a machine that brainwashed you?” He nodded, and Marina looked even more lost. “Do you have any idea how it works? They didn’t have any kind of weird goo, did they?”

Pearl shuddered. She’d hoped every trace of that Tartar thing had been wiped out when the statue exploded, but if any of the slime from it remained and was still being used to mess with people’s brains…

To her relief, Rollo shook his head. “I don’t think so. I just remember being held down in some kind of chair, and lots of weird lights and sounds, and I think some kind of dungeon…”

Marina exchanged a mildly relieved glance with Pearl. That didn’t sound anything like the thing they’d fought out in the sea. _Thank cod_.

“Okay, so it sounds like it wasn’t something physical they did to you—well, technically.” Marina had begun to pace now, lost in one of her trains of thought. She was so smart; maybe she could work out what was going on here. “If I’d have to guess, it sounds like some form of hypnotism, but I don’t see how that would work from a distance – unless…” She lifted the hand with her headphones, letting the ugly cap fall to the floor. With only slight hesitation, she returned the headset to its usual place over her ears, and the lack of any reaction showed that they’d stopped making the terrible noise. “How long ago did they capture you?”

“Uh… I’m not sure.” Rollo gave a tired yet apologetic shrug, throwing a helpless glance at Sheldon. If he’d been trapped in here for a while, he’d probably lost track of time.

“A couple weeks, methinks,” Sheldon nodded, answering the question for him. “He’s only been in here for the past week or so, but—”

“That’s _it_!” Marina’s sudden outburst made Pearl jump. The octoling pulled her headset down to rest around her neck instead. “They must be using some kind of signal to control him, something this ‘machine’ gives out, something he’s been hypnotised to respond violently to! That’s why my headphones keep freaking out; there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re getting interference from the octarian signal!”

“… Whoa. I think.” Pearl stared at her for a long moment, trying to wrap her mind around everything Marina had just said. The word ‘machine’ had been in there, she was pretty sure. “Actually, nah, you lost me.”

“Oh! That would make so much sense!” Sheldon hopped on the spot. “I wonder if it would be possible to develop some kind of countermeasure, perhaps if there was a way to match the frequency, or—”

“Can someone _please_ talk in a language that isn’t _nerd_?” Pearl interrupted sulkily. “I’m getting a headache here.”

“Big machine bad,” Rollo said plainly, a hint of scorn in his voice. Pearl scowled at him, wishing he’d go back to the dumbfounded state from earlier. Where was the celeb respect now?

“Sorry about her,” Marina said with the smallest of smiles, pulling Pearl to her side and squeezing her gently in a one-armed hug. “There might be ways to insulate against it, but the only true effective way to stop it would be to destroy the machine and wipe the frequency data. Especially since it’s likely in the octarian base, and it must be a pretty strong signal for it to reach all the way out here.”

“Greeeat,” Rollo sighed. “Then there’s nothing we can do about it. Guess I’m stuck here forever.”

“Oh, please do not lose hope, Agent 4!” Sheldon said in what was probably his best reassuring voice. “I’m sure we can sort this out. We have extra info now!”

“Wait, wait, what’d you just call him?” Pearl piped up, wriggling free of Marina’s hold. “Agent 4? And you said Agent 1 and 2 earlier, right? You guys must know Agent 3!” She held her head high, proud of her deductive skills, even if it was just her ability to count to four.

“ _You_ know Agent 3?” Sheldon turned to look at her, eyes even wider than usual.

“Sure we do!” Pearl scoffed, folding her arms. “I’ll have you know, we are _honorary_ _members_ of the New Squidbeak Splatoon!”

“Pearl, I think that info is classified,” Marina warned quietly. “We, ah… encountered her while she was on a mission, is probably all we can say.”

“You _are_? And you _did_?” Sheldon looked amazed – and Pearl feared for that expression, which was a similar one he held when he was about to start rambling on about a new weapon.

“I think _encountered_ is a kinda loose way of putting it,” Pearl shrugged. “But I mean, hey, she’s cool. And so are we!” Her eyes lit up as she started to form an idea in her mind. “Hey—hey, Marina! I have, like, a totally amazing idea.”

“Oh no. I’m afraid.”

“It’s better than the last one, I swear. No mayo explosions.” She tugged on Marina’s sleeve. “C’mon. This is _top_ - _secret_ info, not for prying ears, or whatever Sheldon has.”

“Fine hairs which can detect sound vibrations,” Sheldon explained smartly.

“Ew. I didn’t need to hear about your body hair, dude,” Pearl grimaced.

She led the way back to the first section of the testing area, a slight skip in her step, and Marina followed at her normal pace. Hopefully Rollo would survive being left alone with Sheldon for a few minutes.

“Alright. What’s your idea?” Marina asked when they were out of earshot – and… hairshot? Gross.

“Okay, so.” Pearl rubbed her hands together. “We’re, like, totally cool agents now too, right? We helped save the world an’ all. Soooooo… we sneak into that place and destroy the machine!”

“What?” She didn’t know what kind of reaction she’d been expecting from Marina, but the one she got was a deep frown. “Pearlie, I know you mean well, but I don’t think—”

“They’re the ones who took the Great Zapfish too, right? We can get that back in the process and save Inkopolis!”

“That’s— actually, I’m kind of impressed you worked that one out.” A hint of a smile made its way onto Marina’s face. “I mean… there might be a way I could track down where the signal is coming from, but getting the zapfish back might be too difficult for just the two of us. I don’t want to drag Eight into this, and Agent 3…”

“Well… how about we smash that machine, escape, and then we can think of a _new_ plan to get the zapfish back after that.” Pearl nodded wisely. That sounded like a good plan to her. She was the one who came up with it, after all. “That’s sure gonna throw ‘em.”

“I guess…” Marina didn’t look entirely convinced, but at least Pearl could tell she was considering it. “That _might_ be doable… it’ll be really dangerous, though, Pearl. I have no idea if Octavio realised I left. If he did and he finds me there, he’ll have my head.”

“I ain’t letting any Octagon guy lay a tentacle on you, Marina.” Pearl jabbed a thumb at her own chest in confidence. “He’s gonna have to go through _MC_ _Danger_ _Noodle_ if he wants to get to you.”

“Aw, Pearlie.” Marina’s expression softened with a small giggle, and she pulled her into a hug. “I love you so much.”

“Don’t go getting all sappy on me now, ‘Rina.” Pearl huffed, not bothering to hide the toothy grin on her face while Marina couldn’t actually see it. “I love you too. So, like, it’s totally up to you whether we do this or not. If you really don’t wanna, we can help find another solution.”

Marina drew back from the embrace, giving a confident nod. “Thanks, Pearlie. I think we can do this.”

Pearl beamed. “Of course we can! Together we’re, like, the ultimate team. Team Off the Hook. Team Girlfriends. Team… Mearl.”

Marina giggled, holding a hand to her face to try and quell the noise. “I think we can do this _without_ a team name.”

 

* * *

 

“ _Ow_!”

Jake learnt the painful way why stacking a pile of boxes one on top of the other was a terrible idea. All he did was lightly brush against one of them and the whole pile came crashing down on top of him. It _hurt_. Now he understood why Marie always seemed so hesitant about going into this cabin.

Walking to the square had given Jake ample time to think over his plan, and how stupid it probably was, but when he reached the area outside Deca Tower, there was a tense atmosphere hanging in the air. The Great Zapfish was nowhere to be seen. Most of the advertisement screens were switched off with only the biggest one active, where the news was being broadcasted.

The Great Zapfish was missing. Again. If he was any of the other inklings in the square, he might have speculated a little, decided it would probably come back soon just like times past, and left it at that. But Jake didn’t have the luxury of being anyone else right now; he knew what had been going on recently, and he knew it must have been the octarians that stole the zapfish.

That only egged him on further. He didn’t know if he could save the zapfish – probably not, he was just a single inkling with a missing arm – but if he could sneak into the octarian base and destroy the machine, Rollo would be safe again, and maybe they could find a way to get the zapfish back with the help of Callie and Marie! It’d be a lot safer with more people.

Of course, Jake didn’t know how he was going to escape the octarians after destroying their machine – that would surely draw attention – or how he was even going to find it in the first place. He could… figure that out on the way, maybe. Perhaps it’d be obvious. Besides, the worst that could happen was that the octarians would kill him, and that didn’t sound as bad as being locked in a small space for eternity. That was what his brother would have to go through if nobody found a way to deal with this machine.

If the roles were reversed, Jake knew that Rollo would do anything to save him. He had to be brave.

Right now, bravery started with climbing up from the avalanche. Various objects had scattered over the already-messy ground, most of them canned specials. They wouldn’t be very useful to him, since most of them required two arms. Jake didn’t know what exactly he was looking for; he just needed _something_ , for self-defence or to use to destroy the brainwashing machine.

Wincing as he climbed back to his feet, Jake reached over and picked up the charger from its place on the wall. It was far too heavy, and impractical, for him to be able to hold and fire with just one hand. He knew there was a splattershot in here somewhere because he’d seen Callie use it, but when he eventually managed to track it down, that was too heavy for him to weird one-handed too.

Perhaps this was a bad idea. What could he even do? If he couldn’t use a weapon…

His eyes rested on something that had spilled from an overturned box. It looked like a belt of some kind, and upon closer inspection, Jake realised it had a dispenser attached for creating splat bombs.

Perfect.

Getting a moderately heavy belt on with one arm was quite the ungraceful task, and Jake was glad there was nobody around to witness him almost fall over, while sitting on the ground, three times. Another box tried to take him out in the process, but fortunately this one missed, just startling him as it crashed to the ground. Eventually the buckle clicked into place, and Jake let out a sigh of relief.

_Okay. I’m not completely unarmed now._ He took another sweeping look of the room, trying to decide if there was anything he could use. There was an old inkrail head lying in the corner; all of the sections of Octo Canyon he’d seen so far were high above ground, so perhaps that might come in handy if there wasn’t a convenient grate leading directly to where the octarian base was—

A shrill sound broke into the silence. Jake almost jumped out of his skin.

It took him a moment to realise the sound was his phone ringing. Shaking his head, as if that would shake off the surprise, he took the device from his pocket and checked the screen.

_Callie._

Oh no.

She must have realised he wasn’t at home. She was calling to find out where he was. _What am I supposed to say to her!?_

Panic rising in his chest, he just about managed to swipe the call into _unaccepted_ with his non-dominant hand.

_Wait._ Maybe that was a bad idea. She’d probably realise the call had been rejected; he should’ve just left it ringing, maybe she’d leave a message…

No. He didn’t want her trying to talk him out of this.

With only a brief hesitation, he held down the lock button on his phone until it powered off. He didn’t want to take this thing into the octarians’ land with him anyway; he didn’t want it to get broken, and if for some reason there was a signal down there, he didn’t want his phone crying out and announcing his location to every living being should someone try to call him again.

He placed his phone on the corner of the side table where he’d left it once before, wishing he’d remembered to bring the charging cable for it this time, grabbed the inkrail he’d seen earlier, and left the building.

 

* * *

 

After a quick journey home to change into what Pearl had described as ‘stealth clothes’ – so, dark-coloured clothes – Off the Hook returned briefly to Ammo Knights to pick up Pearl’s repaired dualies, and then set out. For… somewhere. Pearl honestly didn’t know where exactly they were going, just that it was going to be dangerous and have a lot of octarians in it, but surely Marina knew.

What Pearl _did_ know was that barrelling across the suspension bridge outside of Inkopolis on a motorbike was as cool as ever. Maybe even more so, knowing they were going on an important mission. It would’ve been cooler if the sun was setting, but there was no time to wait half a day for that. Perhaps on the way back.

Despite the confidence she’d shown earlier, Marina was silent during their journey. Pearl, pressed up against her back to stay on the bike, could tell that she was pretty tense as well. For the first time since coming up with the plan, Pearl started to wonder if maybe it was unfair of her to try and make Marina go back to the place she’d escaped from. She seemed to be okay with it, but what if she was just putting on a brave face?

“You okay, ‘Rina?” Pearl called over the growling of the engine.

“Huh? Yeah, sure.” Marina responded, her voice somewhat absent. “Just, y’know, driving.”

“A’ight. If you say so.” Pearl frowned. Marina was usually pretty talkative on the bike, albeit difficult to hear.

Pearl, arms already around her, gave her girlfriend a squeeze of reassurance before unlatching one arm to take out her phone. She made sure to hold it close to her to avoid dropping it; replacing her phone was always such a hassle. It did make it more difficult to see what she was typing, though.

If they were going on a dangerous mission, she might as well get them a safety net for if anything went wrong.

♪MARINA'S CHAT★ROOM♪

■Webmaster■ > MC.Princess has joined the chatroom.

MC.Princess > Ayo what up. We haven’t used this thing in mad long

MC.Princess > did we even give 3 the link

MC.Princess > helloooooooooo?

MC.Princess > well whatevs maybe cap is taking an old man nap

MC.Princess > we going on a super cool spy mission to go destroy a mind control octarian machine. This is like, movie level stuff. The walk-away-from-explosions kind.

MC.Princess > we might be cool but just in case we need backup

“Pearl, what are you doing?” Marina cast a quick glance back, sending a wind-buffeted tentacle into Pearl’s face by accident. She was probably most concerned with the fact that Pearl was currently only holding onto her with one arm while she used her phone.

“Messaging the chat,” Pearl replied simply. “So they know where we are just in case things _do_ go sour.”

The bike slowed suddenly, and Pearl was lurched forward, getting an entire face full of hair this time. At least the bridge road was pretty empty at this time of day, so they wouldn’t crash. “What was—”

“Don’t—please don’t get the others involved in this.” Marina’s voice was quiet, almost drowned out by a rev of the engine as she accelerated back up to an acceptable road speed. “Especially the captain. I really… _really_ don’t want him getting involved in a place with a lot of octolings.”

“Oh.” Pearl stared blankly at her phone for a few seconds. Sure, the captain seemed to like Marina and Eight now, but… “Right. Yeah, I getcha. Old dude might have a heart attack or somethin’ if he sees a whole army of ‘em.”

Marina gave a dry laugh. That wasn’t the problem at all, and she knew that, and she knew that _Pearl_ knew that too. “Yeah.”

“There’s still time for us to turn back, y’know,” Pearl offered, her voice softer than usual. “If you’re getting cold feet.”

“… Why would that mean we have to turn back—”

“Inkling expression.”

“Oh. Right. No, it’s… I’m fine, Pearl.” Marina took a deep breath, and Pearl wondered if she’d forgotten she could _feel_ her do that and was trying to hide it. “I’m the only one who knows how to navigate the base, anyway.”

“True, true.” Pearl dropped her head against the back of Marina’s shoulders – well, slightly below them actually, since she wasn’t quite tall enough. “I’m, like, totally here for you whatever happens in there, okay?”

Marina smiled. It wasn’t visible from this angle, but Pearl could hear it in her voice. “Thanks, Pearl.”

Pearl typed one last message into the chat before pocketing her phone once more.

MC.Princess > haha syke we’re awesome we don’t need backup we cool. have a rad day everyone

■Webmaster■ > MC.Princess has left the chatroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Their paths start to align.............
> 
> It's not explicitly mentioned anywhere but Rollo is not a huge fan of Pearl. His parents basically refused to give any financial help when he moved out & now struggles to earn enough money for him & his lil bro (when he's not being brainwashed) and she is openly a spoiled brat whose dad gives her anything she wants, so it's pretty understandable honestly lmao


	15. Bravery

It took some searching, but Jake finally made it to the last section he hadn’t yet seen of Octo Canyon. From the looks of things, this area was definitely close to the octarians’ base.

_Cephalon HQ._

The ground below the floating platforms was swamped with pinkish-purple ink, promising a slow and painful death to anyone who fell. Jake held his breath to jump across a gap to a platform that floated past, after watching its looping path to see where it would take him, and he narrowly avoided letting the smooth inkrail activator slip from his arm. If it fell in the ink, he wasn’t getting it back.

His perilous journey eventually took him to the rim around a large gaping hole in the ground. There was a drop of a few metres down to a metal surface below, which appeared to be a massive circular door of some sort. There was a star-shaped gap in the centre where it had been left slightly open, and an inkrail cross-section floated in the air above it. Whatever inkrail that was connected to, it wasn’t active right now.

That must have been how Rollo had gone in and out of the octarians’ base while under their control. There had to be an activator at the other end which the octarians could set off when they wanted him to return.

Well, good thing he’d picked up that one in the cabin. Jake placed down the inkrail and spent probably more time than necessary trying to angle it directly at the connector. He’d have to use a bomb to activate it, and when he did, it wouldn’t stay active for very long. He was going to have to get down there fast.

He was also going to have to swim. Jake had only transformed once since losing his arm, to get through the grates to Tentakeel Outpost, and it had _hurt_. He’d barely even formed a squid. Time to make sure he could still do that.

Jake took a deep breath, then let his inkling form melt. For a moment he was lost in a mess of cyan and pain, but once he managed to pull his squid form together it started to subside. _Phew._ Now a squid, he twisted a little to see himself. One of his largest tentacles, the one that would become his right arm, was nothing but a short stump now. That was going to make swimming a lot more difficult. He’d have to let gravity drag him down this inkrail and hope he didn’t need to escape up it in a hurry later.

“Now or never,” Jake muttered to himself, wincing as turning back into inkling form made his lack-of-arm sting and knowing full well that just saying those words was going to get the song of that name stuck in his head for a while. After taking a moment to actually work out how to use the belt, he pressed a button which dispensed a cyan-coloured splat bomb far bigger than what it had just been inside. It made a whining activation noise, and Jake hurriedly threw it towards the ink rail before it could explode in his hand. Even if it was in his ink colour, the force of the explosion would still hurt.

Jake transformed back into a squid just as the explosion went off, scattering blue ink across the ground and causing a high-pitched noise as the ink rail was activated. He jumped into it as soon as the rail appeared, gliding through the ink towards the first connector.

There weren’t any after that, as far as he could see. The rail led down, with just enough space in the door opening for a squid to fit through, and beyond that… down into what lay below.

It looked like a city. Jake was hesitant to look around too much as he sped downwards, in case the inkrail ended at some point and he needed to stop before he fell from a horrific height, but what he could see below looked not unlike a birds-eye view of Inkopolis.

Soon, the ground was in sight. The end of the inkrail was a few metres above the ground, and trying to transform in the short fall sent Jake sprawling unceremoniously to the floor.

He lay there for a moment, slightly dazed and shaking in fear. This was it. He’d made it to the octarian city.

The line of the faintly glowing inkrail above slowly vanished like a cloud covering the sun.

There was no turning back now.

 

* * *

 

Callie was only half relieved to find nobody else around when she made it to Tentakeel Outpost. Despite being further away than their home was, she’d made it here before Marie, but her cousin wasn’t exactly the ‘drop-everything-and-go’ type, especially when it sounded like she’d just woken up. Callie had hoped she might find Jake here, though, but perhaps the silence proved that her theory as to where he was had been wrong after all. She hoped with all her heart that he’d just decided to get some fresh air, or gone to buy milk, or something else that pulled him out of the house in a completely non-dangerous way.

Her hopes were dashed when she reached the doorway to Cuttlefish Cabin. Granted, the place had never been particularly _tidy_ , but right now it looked like an absolute pigsty. Boxes and cans were scattered all across the ground, and clearly one of her expertly-balanced box towers had collapsed. Marie definitely wouldn’t have left the place looking like this.

“Maybe it’s just… the wind,” she muttered quietly to herself. It’d have to be a hurricane to make this much of a mess, but maybe there was a _slim_ chance.

Her gaze came to rest on the table near the door. As soon as she saw the arrow-shaped object lying on it, she knew her fears were true. That was Jake’s phone; that was a sure sign he’d been here, and since it wasn’t plugged in, he hadn’t just visited to charge it if the power had gone off in his house again.

_He’s gone. He’s gone to try and destroy that machine by himself._ Callie stared blankly at the mess in front of her for a long moment, wishing she could work out if Jake had even taken anything with him. Surely he couldn’t think he’d be able to destroy some kind of machinery with his bare hands – hand? The weapons were all still here, but taking any of them would probably only slow him down with just one arm in the first place.

She should have tried harder to convince him things would turn out okay. If only she’d arrived earlier, or tried to call him earlier that morning, or _something_ …

Callie felt her vision blur. She couldn’t tell if she wanted to cry or just punch the nearest wall, but not knowing if the old cabin walls would hold up stopped her from doing the latter. Why couldn’t she just _make things better_?

_No. Stop. This isn’t the time for crying._ She took a deep breath, probably inhaling a lungful of dust in the process. If she truly wanted things to work out, she had to find a way to make that happen. Crying wouldn’t help. She pushed up her shades to wipe away the tears she could feel forming in her eyes and looked for the safest path across the room to where she’d untidily stashed their weapons the last time she’d been here.

After a task of less ‘the floor is lava’ and more ‘everything on top of the floor is lava’, she managed to get to them. Since it was the lighter weapon, she lifted Marie’s charger out first. Callie froze as she noticed a smear of dark blue on the lighter yellowish-green. She hadn’t touched Marie’s weapon other than carrying it back here after that fight with Rollo, mostly out of respect since her cousin wouldn’t want her messing with it, but perhaps she should have at least tried to clean it. Some of the black casing was scuffed from hitting the ground when Marie fell off that tower, too.

Callie couldn’t do anything about the scratches, but at the very least, a nearby cloth was able to clean off the dried blood, with a little persistence. With that done, Callie tossed the old rag into one of the collapsed boxes, adding to the mess, and picked up her roller, slinging it over her shoulder and narrowly missing the bulb hanging from the ceiling.

_Okay. Now to wait for Marie to get here and find some way to explain all this._

Speak of the devil and she shall appear, because the second Callie took a step outside the cabin, Marie appeared from the grate. She headed for the building, looked up, saw Callie holding both their weapons, and almost tripped from freezing mid-step.

“… Callie.”

“Um.”

“Callie, what’s – what is your _idea_ , and why do you have my charger?” There was a look of calculated fear in Marie’s eyes, probably realising what Callie’s ‘idea’ involved, even if she didn’t know the reason for it yet.

“… Ah! Yes. My, ah, my idea.” Callie hopped a few steps forward, accompanied by the clanking of weaponry, and held Marie’s charger out towards her. She didn’t take it. “So, uh… funny story…”

“ _Callie_.” Marie gave her a fierce glare. She had her Agent 2 hat on to hide how her hair was tied up, but not the facemask, and her mouth twitched into a deep frown. After a few seconds, she finally took the weapon from Callie, if only so she wouldn’t keep awkwardly standing there with it.

Callie sighed, the roller suddenly feeling like a crushing weight against her shoulder. She lowered it to the ground, biting her lip as she tried to decide how to break this news. “I couldn’t find Jake this morning. I think… I think he went to try and destroy the machine by himself.”

Silence. Unnerving silence. She watched Marie’s face for a reaction, and for a few seconds got none, until her cousin gave a single laugh. “That—this is a joke. That’s a joke, right? He’s not that stupid. Or—you’re just jumping to conclusions, Callie, how would you even know he’s—”

“His phone’s here,” Callie interrupted, her voice growing quieter with every word. “He just left it here, it’s not charging. And the cabin’s a mess – more than usual — so he must have been looking for something to defend himself with.”

The silence was back, but this time, she could see the expression on Marie’s face change to one of guarded horror, with the realisation that what Callie was saying _made_ _sense_ and that there wasn’t much other explanation. Her gaze blanked for a few moments, as if she were seeing right through Callie – and then eventually she shook her head. “He’s dead.”

“Marie, we don’t know that—”

“He’s fucking _dead_ , Callie!” Unable to meet her eyes any longer, Marie brushed past her cousin, dropping onto the bench outside the cabin with a clunk of wood. She dropped her charger against the seat also, but it soon toppled over and clattered onto the ground. “He’s missing an arm! He can’t even use a weapon, he wouldn’t last five minutes against an octocopter, let alone _in their headquarters_!”

“Well, yeah, I mean, I see your point,” Callie nodded, trying to keep her expression level. She swung the roller back over her shoulder. “So… that’s why we have to do something about this.”

“ _What_.” There was pure despair in her voice now; Marie was sick of everything going wrong in the past few weeks, and Callie couldn’t blame her in the slightest. Marie stared at the ground as she spoke. “ _What_ do you suggest we do, Callie.”

“Go in after him?”

“ _No_!” Marie’s gaze snapped back to her, and she looked at Callie as if she’d grown an extra head. “We can’t do that; we’d just be walking straight into our deaths!”

_More than you know._ Callie had never told her about Octavio specifically wanting the two of them dead, and she wasn’t about to tell her now, or it’d erase any chance she had of convincing Marie to do this. “But if it’s that dangerous for _us_ , it’s a million times worse for Jake! He’s on his own and, half-literally, unarmed.”

Marie scoffed, looking away at the ground once more. “If he’s stupid enough to go in there, that’s his own problem.”

“But we can’t just leave him there!”

“Watch me.”

“ _Marie_!” Callie snapped, her grip tightening on her roller. That was the breaking point. “I know you don’t mean that. You’re not _that_ heartless, no matter how much you seem to want me to think you are.” Her gaze remained fierce. “That’s why you won’t even look at me when you say that.”

“I know. I _know_ , Callie.” Marie pulled her arms around herself, slouching over as if her stomach hurt. “You’re right, I just—we can’t do this.”

“Fine.” Callie huffed, adjusting the position of the roller on her shoulder as she took a step away from the bench. “I’ll go by myself.”

“Wha— _no_!” Marie, not missing a beat, reached out and grabbed Callie’s arm. Callie had to quickly grab her roller with her other hand before it could escape her. “You _can’t_! What am I supposed to do if something happens to you again!?”

_Again_. Marie’s grip was so tight that Callie could feel her nails digging into her skin even through her sleeve, and she took a step closer in the hope that might loosen it. “Mar, I’m sorry. I know you’re scared, but… isn’t that how Rollo – Agent 4 – would feel too?”

Marie opened her mouth to reply, but closed it a second later when no sound came out. She freed Callie from the bruising grip, hands falling back into her lap. “I…” Her second attempt to form a response was no more fruitful than the first, and she let out a long sigh.

“Besides,” Callie forced a smile. “Jake is Agent 4’s little brother; that makes him ours too!”

“You…” Marie’s expression faded back into the familiar deadpan one. “… have a very foundational misunderstanding of how relatives work.”

“Well, _clearly_ I do. I don’t understand _you_ half the time.” Callie grinned, completely misunderstanding the joke. “C’mon. We just – we go in there, we find Jake, we drag him out. No heroic machine-destroying exploits necessary. He can’t have gone that far.” _I hope._

There was a short silence as Marie took a moment to consider her plan. At least she was actually thinking about it this time; that was a good sign. She sighed again, mostly in defeat. “Okay. Alright. I’ll go with you.”

“Yes!” Callie cheered, jumping on the spot and getting smacked in the back by her roller. _Ouch_. She offered out a hand as Marie reached for her charger. “And when we get him back here, you can scare him into not trying to go back there again with one of your now-infamous rants.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ll think of plenty of things to say on the way there.” Marie rolled her eyes as she took Callie’s hand to help her stand up. “If the octarians haven’t killed him by the time we get there, I’ll make him wish they did.”

 

* * *

 

This place – this octarian city – was terrifying.

Everything was dim, with the darkness that came with only unnatural lighting. Streetlamps flickered on and off, and the air was still. Creaks and groans echoed around the walls like a pained ghost, crying out over the thumping of a muffled beat that seemed to be broadcasted from all directions. A rancid smell soured every breath.

This was a bad idea. This was a really, really bad idea. He shouldn’t have gone here. This place was creepy.

There was no way for him to get back now, though, so the only way was forward.

Jake took a deep breath, almost gagging at the smell, and dived into the shadows of the nearest alley. Every part of the city looked built-up and packed together, like the buildings of central Inkopolis but nowhere near as tall. What if someone here had seen the inkrail? He hadn’t seen any octarians here _yet_ , but that didn’t mean there weren’t any around at all.

Which way was he even supposed to go? Jake stared upwards; this was another dome, albeit much bigger than the ones the kettles led to. There was the smallest spec of light seeping in from the gap in the opening at the top, which seemed ever so far away now, and then… there was a stronger glow coming from one side of the hemispherical roof. More light meant more power, right? That must be where the zapfish was, and to guess, probably the octarians’ base, too.

Hopefully that really was where he’d find the machine.

Now with a destination in mind, Jake crept through the streets, trying to stick to the shadows as best as he could and letting his ink colour fade into a dark purple. As an inkling, he couldn’t quite match the natural pinkish-purple octarian colour, but hopefully this would be enough for him to go unnoticed. He had a black jumper on, so that might help him blend into the shadows too.

Through gaps in the buildings, he could begin to see where the light was coming from. The buildings got taller at the far side of the dome, and a large UFO-like object floated above them. Was that where Octavio was?

The sound of a voice sent him recoiling back into the shadows, holding his breath as footsteps passed. Whoever it was didn’t notice him, and they were saying words he didn’t understand. When the voices grew quieter, further away, Jake dared to peer around the corner of the building, seeing a couple of figures walking down the street. Inklings?

No; the suction cups were on the outside of their hair. _Octolings_.

Jake had seen a few of them in Inkopolis before, but not many. Was this where the majority of them lived? In this dark, dingy, foul-smelling city, with awful noises and no daylight? Did they even know the above-ground world existed?

For the first time, Jake found himself feeling bad for the octarians – or at least, the octolings. As far as he could tell, the ones with no humanoid form were nothing but mindless and aggressive, and he had no idea who or what their leader was other than the name Octavio. The octolings, at least judging by the few he’d seen, weren’t much different than inklings, but even so, he wanted to avoid getting seen by them here. In this place, they’d almost certainly be on Octavio’s side.

Octavio was the reason his brother was locked in a glass orb, the reason his friends had been hurt, and the reason Jake was missing his arm. That was more than enough for Jake to hate him.

The further Jake went in the city, the more the atmosphere seemed to change. The octolings he’d seen earlier looked like they were living their everyday lives, but nearer to the light, they marched through the street with purpose, most of them with weapons on display, any emotion hidden behind glowing shades. If any of _them_ found Jake, he was almost certainly dead.

Things just got a lot more dangerous.

_Remember why you’re doing this. You have to save your brother._

There were starting to be less and less places to hide, as the buildings packed closer together and the shadowy alleyways became few and far between. Jake waited, still as a statue behind a parked car, as a blaster-wielding octoling patrolled down the street. There was another alley on the far side, and if he could just reach it he’d probably be safe again, at least for a short while.

The octoling was far away now. Time to sneak past.

Jake emerged warily from his hiding spot, trying to tread quietly as he crossed the wide road.

He hadn’t made it half way across before the octoling glanced back.

They cried out something Jake couldn’t understand, reaching for their weapon.

_Oh no._

Jake panicked, taking off at a run and dashing into the alley. He had to lose that octoling _fast_ , before he crossed the path of any others, or before they could kill him—

Something lunged at him from the shadows.

Jake cried out as he was suddenly dragged through the gap of an ex-window. It was only a short drop to the floor, but when he landed, he was shoved to the ground, and something clamped over his mouth – a gloved hand.

He’d been caught. He was going to die.

Jake, eyes round with fear, let out a quiet whimper. His right shoulder was pressed against the ground, and it _stung_.

“ _Shh_.”

That… wasn’t really the sound of someone who was trying to kill you.

Footsteps thundered outside as the octoling ran past, still searching for him. Then it let out a shriek of surprise, which was soon cut off by a loud _thud_.

The world fell silent.

Whoever had been holding him against the ground moved away.

The second he was freed, Jake struggled to get back up quickly and escape. He ended up almost flopping back down onto his stomach again in his panic, briefly forgetting that he didn’t have his right arm to push himself up with.

“Oh!” The person who’d dragged him down here gasped. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise your arm—I hope you’re okay.” Maybe it was just him being in half a daze, but Jake could swear the voice sounded familiar. “It was a little violent, but dragging you down here was the only way to avoid that soldier.”

Someone grabbed him, more gently this time, to pull him up. As soon as Jake caught a glimpse of the person – the octoling hair, the lack of joined eye mask – he instinctively tried to struggle free from their grip, almost sending himself sprawling back to the floor again.

“Wait, don’t panic—we won’t hurt you, I swear.”

Jake, propped up only by his left arm, stared at his apparent saviour in disbelief. “Y-you’re…” He was hallucinating, right? Whatever nasty chemicals floated in the air here were getting to him.

Another figure appeared at the empty window frame, dropping down to join them. Another _inkling_. “Out like a light! And in one hit too. I’m a total squid-fu expert.” Her voice was hushed, but there was no mistaking it.

Pearl and Marina. From Off the Hook.

_What on earth are they doing here!?_

 

* * *

 

“Well, there goes our last hope of my theory being wrong.” Callie sighed, staring down at the slowly-evaporating splash of cyan ink surrounding an inactive inkrail. “At least he has… splat bombs, I think.” That was the smallest sliver of relief. Jake wasn’t _completely_ defenceless.

“He must have found one of the dispenser belts,” Marie commented. She seemed to have accepted this fate by now, but her hands were still shaking as she tightly gripped her charger, and tried to cover this up by adjusting her hat.

Callie had a lot more confidence about what they were doing when she was back up at Tentakeel Outpost. Now that they were actually down here, in the gloomy swamp of Cephalon HQ… not so much. She didn’t like this place. Everything was a little hazy, but she had weird, patchy memories of being here before, when the octarians had kidnapped and brainwashed her. She wasn’t particularly keen on going back.

But if they didn’t go in there and find Jake…

“Hey, at least he was here not long ago if some of the ink’s still around,” Callie pointed out, forcing a smile, trying to remain optimistic for both herself and her cousin.

“Great.” Marie was using that tone of voice where Callie couldn’t tell if it was sarcasm or not. “I guess we have to use the inkrail now too.”

“That looks like the easiest way down,” Callie nodded.

“How do we even get back? It won’t stay active for long.”

“Hmm…” Good question. A very important question. Callie glanced at the floating connector above the gap in the circular door. “There must be one at the other end too. This is probably how Rollo got in and out.”

Marie nodded silently. She looked terrified. Callie didn’t blame her.

“Hey,” Callie said, drawing her attention. “I’m proud of you for agreeing to go with me on this.”

Meeting her gaze for a few seconds, Marie frowned. “Don’t patronise me, Callie.”

“I’m not! I’m trying to be _encouraging_ ,” Callie huffed. Thinking quickly for a moment, she shifted her ink colour, fading it into the same lime green as her cousin. “Let’s go green this time. It’s only fair since I kinda dragged you into this.”

“Trust me, Cal, _you’re_ not the one I blame for this,” Marie said with a scowl. She must have realised why Callie had chosen her colour, though; they’d need to get down the inkrail quickly, before the activator ran out of ink, and it’d be easier for Marie to hold a squid form for that time if she didn’t have to also focus on staying a different colour.

“Then we’d better find the culprit before he can get too far.” Callie gave a determined nod. A quick glance down at herself brought a slight frown to her face. “Also, the sooner we find Jake and get back, the sooner I can go back to pink. Green really doesn’t suit me.”

 

* * *

 

_Kill them._

_Shut up!_

_Return to us. Track them down._

_I won’t! They’re my friends!_

_They deserve to die._

_SHUT UP!_

_Intruder. Intruder alert._

_What!?_

_Intruder in the city._

_Alert._

_Alert!_

_ALERT!_

_An inkling. One arm. Not much threat._

_Return._

_Jake…?_

_Could be others._

_I have to go._

_Return._

_I can’t._

_Return._

_RETURN._

The imprisoned inkling pressed his hands over his ears. The voices wouldn’t shut up. Which ones were his? Who _was_ he?

_Jake._

That was a name in his mind. Probably someone important. Important to who he was supposed to be, or another he had to kill?

He had to get out of this place. He needed to return. That was important.

This was a prison. He’d tried to break out of it already.

Fists slammed against the glass. Again.

A small crack. It was giving up.

Just like him. Who he had been. _Pathetic weak inklings. Giving up._

The crack grew bigger.

_I’m with the octarians now. Eliminate their threat._

_Kill them._

Spreading across the glass.

_That’s the only thing that’s important._

After being pressured repeatedly for a week, the glass couldn’t take any more hits.

Shards exploded across the floor.

The inkling fell.

Glass scratched his arms and dug into his hands as he stood up. Blue dripped on the floor. That was unimportant.

_Return._

He was free. Free to finish what he’d been sent to do.

_RETURN._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm. That's not good.
> 
> Callie is trying her best and I love her so much!!


	16. Trust

“What are you doing down here?”

Huh. Funny; that was more or less what he wanted to ask the two standing in front of him, but Jake’s voice seemed to have decided to give up for now.

“Hellooo, earth to squidkid?” Pearl snapped her fingers in front of his face. “You gonna answer the question?”

“Pearlie, gentle,” Marina said quietly when Jake visibly flinched away from the white-haired inkling’s tone. Her gaze, noticeably more friendly than Pearl’s, switched back to him. “How did you get down here? And… why?”

“I-I…” Many thoughts swarmed Jake’s mind, as to whether he should trust them – they were Off the Hook, how could he not!? – if he should tell them the reason why he was here, if he should just try to make a run for it… although if he did, he’d only be greeted with more of the octarian army trying to kill him. What was even going to happen to his self-assigned mission now!?

Pearl watched him with an intimidating yet curious glance, trying to make herself seem big by folding her arms and standing as tall as she could manage. She looked a lot different than when announcing the news, dressed ninja-style in all black, but apparently unwilling to give up the crown motif as the hood pulled over her head had some spikes of fabric sewn on to it, undoubtedly hand-done. A pair of dualies was clipped to her belt, one on each side.

She stared at him with a discerning eye for a long moment when he didn’t respond, but much to his surprise, her eyes suddenly flew wide. Pearl jabbed a pointing finger in his direction. “Hey, wait! Aren’t you the kid who got beat up in the square!?”

_They saw me!?_ Oh, well, that made that whole scenario extra embarrassing. Shaken up from the events of that day, it had slipped Jake’s mind that there was a massive window in the studio where the two idols could view the whole area, and he’d probably been in direct sight. Self-consciously, Jake held his hand up to the left side of his face; it didn’t hurt anymore, but the last time he’d looked in a mirror there had been the faintest trace of yellow. In the surprise of being dragged down here, his hair had faded back to its natural cyan, too. “Um… m-maybe.”

“Wow. Small world. Man, you really don’t choose good places to hang out, do ya?”

“How did you find this place?” Marina tried to continue her interrogation despite not getting any actual answers thus far, no thanks to her partner distracting him.

Jake had already made a terrible first impression – that seemed to be a running trend with meeting celebrities now, and he wasn’t happy about that – so he might as well try and help as best he could. Even if she was an octoling, he had a feeling Marina wasn’t working with the other octarians, especially since she’d saved him just now, and how much did she know? And how much was he allowed to say?

Thinking of it, Marie was already going to be pissed at him when he got back. _If_ he got back. So… it wasn’t as if he could make things much worse, right?

“Octo Canyon,” he answered simply. “I went through an inkrail.”

Marina gained a thoughtful look at this information. “So there’s new entrances now… interesting. But… why? I don’t mean to belittle you, but… a one-armed inkling really shouldn’t be in a place like this.”

“My—my brother,” Jake stammered, starting to gain confidence. “The octarians brainwashed him, a-and there’s some kind of machine, and… I have to destroy it.” Hopefully that jumbled explanation would suffice.

Marina’s eyebrows rose. “Is his name Rollo?” she asked, at the same time Pearl spat out “that was your _brother_!?”

“You’ve _met_ him!?” Now it was Jake’s turn to look shocked again. “But—how – h-he’s supposed to be hidden at Ammo Knights!” _Wait. Should I be saying that? Oops._

“We _maaaay_ have broken in to Sheldon’s back room,” Pearl stated, not sounding at all ashamed of this fact as she lifted her arms in a shrug.

“ _You_ did,” Marina added, but her tone was one of affection rather than accusation as she sheepishly grinned at her co-host.

“Pssh, details, details. You were my partner in crime.”

“That aside,” Marina waved her away with one hand, the green of her fingertips showing through the fingerless gloves, as she addressed Jake. “I don’t know if it was brave or reckless of you to go down here to save him, but it’s definitely not safe down here.” While Pearl’s attire was pretty much ‘things which are dark-coloured to hide in the shadows’, Marina’s current getup looked strikingly similar to the octoling soldiers Jake had seen thus far, albeit with some slight differences, the most noticeable one being the lack of glowing shades. An oddly-shaped pair of goggles was pushed up onto her forehead instead, and a decently-sized backpack was slung over her shoulders.

“I had to go,” Jake insisted, hoping they’d take the shaking in his voice as determination and not fear. “Th-the others weren’t going to do anything, and he was going to be trapped in that bowl otherwise…!”

“Others?” Pearl echoed.

“Uh…” _Oh, shrimp._ He couldn’t very well tell them the _Squid Sisters_ were involved. “A-agents… 1 and 2…?”

“Ooh, you’ve met them? What are they like?”

“Not the time, Pearl.” Marina gave her a gentle nudge.

“Right, right, right, important mission. Anyway, we’re on our way to deal with that machine, so you don’t gotta worry about it! We’re, like, totally awesome agents too. Unofficially.” Pearl held her head high with a toothy grin.

“Although, you won’t be safe if we just leave you here,” Marina said, her gaze resting uneasily on Jake. “Perhaps we should get you out of here first—”

“That’s gonna take so much _time_!” Pearl groaned.

“I could go with you!” Jake blurted out. “I—my brother’s the one in this mess, I want to help.”

Pearl scoffed. “How is a one-armed inkling going to help us?”

“If any of the octarians find them and we’re not around, they’re dead,” Marina said quietly, giving a half-hearted smile. “They’re safer with us, until we find somewhere safer for them to hide.”

For a long moment, Pearl remained silent, thinking over what had just been said. “… Eh, sure, whatevs.” She stuffed her hands into her pockets. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Jake.” He scrambled to get up at last, fighting against his shaking legs, and Marina instinctively began to hold a hand out to help before realising he didn’t have a spare one to take hers with. The realisation that she had been talking about him just now hit him as he wiped his hand on his already-dusty shorts. “I-it’s, ah… he.”

Marina gave a smile and a small nod, a silent promise to remember this for future. Pearl took a step towards him, an intense look in her eyes that made Jake want to flinch away again.

“You’re really short,” the white-haired inkling observed. Jake blinked in surprise, wondering if he should point out _that’s incredibly rich coming from you,_ since he probably still had an inch on her, but before he could formulate a response, she held out her gloved hand towards him, curled into a fist. “Respect, bro. Us tiny inklings are few and far between.”

Jake stared at her outstretched hand for so long that she gave it a shake for emphasis. “Oh! Sure.” He bumped his fist against hers.

He’d just fistbumped Pearl from Off the Hook. _Whoa_ …

“I have the feeling you might know this already,” Marina said, smiling at their interaction, “but my name’s Marina, and this is Pearl.”

Jake nodded enthusiastically. “You guys are Off the Hook!”

“Squid’s got excellent taste and everything!” Pearl nodded wisely. “Okay, mission time. As soon as we leave this building, stay as quiet as a fish, and we do whatever Marina says. She’s super smart and knows almost everything there is to know about this place.”

 

* * *

 

She didn’t like this place. She didn’t like this place. She really _didn’t like this place_.

It was a much less graceful entrance than Marie had hoped, leaving the last section of inkrail and slamming into the ground still half as a mess of ink before hurriedly pulling her inkling form back together, gasping for breath after holding a squid for so long. That must have beaten her recent personal record, but she’d been too focused on trying to get down here in one piece to count the seconds.

She almost had a heart attack when Callie, still in squid form, fell on her. Marie stifled her surprised yelp of fear and flung her away with one arm.

“Whoa!” Callie gasped, her voice garbled as she transformed back into an inkling. She caught the roller before it could slam into the ground and cause a loud noise, swinging it back over her shoulder instead. “What was that for!?”

“For _falling on me_ ,” Marie hissed, snatching the charger which had reformed on the ground next to her and pushing herself back to her feet, not bothering to check if Callie had offered her a hand up. Now standing, she glanced around warily, one finger hovering over the trigger of her weapon, but there was no sound to indicate that they’d been noticed by the octarians.

“You were directly below the inkrail and softer than the ground,” Callie huffed indignantly. She looked up, where the inkrail was swiftly deactivating.

“Hah… how do we get out of here,” Marie asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking, even though Callie would see right through her.

“Umm…” It was impossible to see Callie’s full expression behind her Agent 1 shades – Marie _hated_ seeing her wear those in _this_ place, and was more relieved than she was willing to admit even to herself when Callie pushed the shades up to her forehead because it was too dark to see with them on.

Perhaps a month wasn’t long enough for her to fully recover from what happened, especially now with this new big mess for them to deal with. If Callie was as affected by this place as much as Marie was, she did a damn good job of hiding it. After all, _Callie_ was the one who’d been kidnapped and held here.

_Maybe I should have tried harder to insist we stay away from here._ And what? Let Jake get murdered by octarians?

They could already be too late, for all she knew, and risking their lives for nothing. Sure, the kid had grown on her over the past few weeks, but Marie had a _much_ higher bar than Callie for the point where she was willing to put herself in danger to save someone. There was no way she’d let her cousin go into this place alone, though.

“Oh! There’s another activator up there.” Callie’s announcement dragged Marie out of her spiralling thoughts, pointing up to the top of something that looked like a fire escape on the side of one of the buildings. Sure enough, the head of an inkrail pointed to the last connector, offering a path back up to the surface. “Just like I thought. We’re not stuck down here.”

“Thank cod for that.” That did little to ease Marie’s nerves, but it was _something_ , at least. “Okay, so what’s your plan? For finding Jake?”

“Hmm…” Callie tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I dunno.”

“Oh, great. Good to know we’re in such capable hands.”

“Hey, _you’re_ the one who has all the plan-making genes in this family,” Callie pouted.

Marie glared at her. _Really, Callie, you’re expecting me to work this out?_ She could barely even get her thoughts together; her brain was such a mess of anxiety right now.

Thankfully Callie seemed to get the message. “Okay, okay, lemme think. If he’s looking for the machine… he’d go to wherever he thinks it’d be.”

“Wow. Great deduction.”

Callie ignored her grumbling. “So, assuming he thought about which direction to go…” _He probably wouldn’t have done._ “It’s lighter that way.” She pointed ahead of them. “Light means more power, right? They probably have the Great Zapfish at their base.”

“… Right.” Marie was actually a little impressed, for Callie standards, but she couldn’t formulate the words to express that right now, so held her tongue lest she end up giving another snide remark by accident. “I guess… we head that way, and hope we catch up to him soon.”

“Yep!”

“And hope no octarians find us.”

“And if they _do_ ,” Callie grinned menacingly. She didn’t continue that sentence, patting the gleaming handle of her roller.

“Violent, but probably our best bet.” Marie frowned. “We should try to avoid giving the octolings any fatal injuries, though. Most of them are probably just pawns for Octavio.” As for the other octarians… they were just severed tentacles, barely sentient in the first place, as far as she knew. _Now isn’t the time to start feeling sorry for the enemy._

Callie nodded. “Right.” She smacked a hand on her cousin’s back, in a way that was much too rough to actually make Marie feel any better. “We can do this! Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

Jake, already unhappy that Marina had to lift him out of the missing window like a little kid since he couldn’t climb out by himself with one arm, felt his stomach turn when he saw the octoling soldier lying in an awkward position on the ground in the shadows of the alleyway. “Is… a-are they…?”

“Just unconscious,” Pearl stated, and Marina checked the creature’s pulse to confirm her words.

“You must have hit them pretty hard,” Marina observed, nervously biting her lip. “They may have sent out an emergency signal, so hopefully someone will help them – which also means we need to get out of here before they find _us_.”

The friendly octoling grabbed a device which had previously been clipped to her belt. Pearl tiptoed on ahead to the far end of the alley, peering around the corner. Jake, unsure what he should do other than not wander off alone, tried to catch a glimpse of the screen Marina was holding; it looked like some kind of device for tracking, and there were four blips close together in the centre, half in one colour and half in another.

Marina caught his glance and gave a half-hearted smile. “Checking for nearby lifeforms,” she explained quietly. “That’s how we found you here. I thought it was a little unusual it was picking up traces of inkling.” She tapped the screen a few times, causing it to show different shapes, then pointed in the direction of the light. “Signal’s still coming from the base, so it looks like that’s where we’ll find the machine they were using on your brother.”

“Coast’s clear!” Pearl whispered from a few metres away, her voice coming out as a hiss as she tried to make it audible but still hushed.

“You know we can check without having to look around,” Marina said with a smile as she followed after her, waving the gadget in her hand.

“Yeah, but you gotta get the _authentic_ _spy_ _experience_ ,” Pearl huffed. Marina patted her head.

Jake tailed the pair as Marina led them through the city, using her fancy screen to guide them safely around the paths of the soldiers, far enough away that they only heard the occasional nonsensical muttering between them in the distance. He was glad beyond relief that he had company now; this place seemed a lot less deadly when he wasn’t alone, especially when one of them seemed to know where they were going. It probably wasn’t his place to ask, so Jake kept his mouth shut, but he was beginning to wonder if Marina used to live in this place; not only because she was an octoling, but that would explain how she had armour similar to the soldiers here.

Their trail led them into the mountain-like band of structures close to the wall of the dome, where the city was brightest and the massive UFO hovered in the air above a tall tower. There were multiple layers to the city here, with grate pathways linked between some of the higher floors, and the stairs eventually led up to a massive place surrounded by high walls.

They took shelter behind some boxes in what looked like an empty garage someone had left open. Marina checked the signal-tracking device once more before switching it off and shoving it into one of the pockets of her bag.

“The machine’s in the base. I can’t track it any further, though, or they might pick up our signal.” Marina shook her head. “I do have an idea of where it might be, though. It can’t be too far from the radio tower.” She pointed over the boxes at the tower Jake had seen earlier, just below the UFO.

“You guys have radio down here?” Pearl tapped her fingers against the boxes. “So that’s why I can hear music.”

“Yeah. Plays in every home and building at all times.”

“ _All_ the time?” Pearl’s eyebrows rose. “Like, don’t get me wrong, I like some beats, but even I couldn’t listen to the radio 24/7.”

Marina gave a half-hearted smile in response but didn’t elaborate. “Sneaking into the base might be difficult. It’ll be more heavily guarded than the rest of the city; that’s why there’s a wall around it.”

“Is that where Octavio lives?” Jake asked quietly. He hadn’t spoken much since joining them, putting his trust in Marina to guide them here without asking questions, but now he was curious about the octolings – and their leader.

“Assuming he hasn’t moved in the past two years, yeah.” Marina nodded, although a brief look of surprise flashed through her eyes at the fact that he knew the name of the octarian leader. “Last time I was here, only elite agents and scientists were permitted free access to the innermost section.”

“Sounds like the dude’s got something to hide,” Pearl said, narrowing her eyes at the wall in the distance as if that were supposed to intimidate it somehow. “I bet he was a shit leader.”

“Well, I can’t say you’re wrong,” Marina sighed. Habitually she ran a hand over her hair – she didn’t have the headphones on today, and Jake realised that he’d never actually seen her without them before – and when her fingers brushed against the goggles resting on her forehead, she blinked in surprise. “Actually… I think I have an idea to get us inside.”

 

* * *

 

Callie didn’t remember this city at all – she most likely hadn’t left the base when the octarians had kidnapped and brainwashed her, and she barely remembered much of her time spent wearing the hypnoshades in the first place – but there was something about the smell in the air that brought back an incredibly uneasy feeling.

Still, she bit her cheek and led the way through the streets in the direction they thought Jake had headed. Marie was already incredibly on edge, and Callie didn’t want to make her feel any worse.

They kept to the shadows to avoid being spotted, though there might have been a good chunk of luck involved too, especially since Marie couldn’t change the white of her hair to a darker colour. Their hair gene was pretty cool aesthetically, but it could be really inconvenient at times, especially right now.

Every time Callie looked around a corner, though, the place was silent, other than the weird echoey music she could hear quietly. Compared to Inkopolis, this city looked almost deserted. She hoped it was always this quiet, and it wasn’t anything to do with the fact that Jake was here somewhere.

When they eventually did spot an octoling, as they started to get closer to the edge of the dome, it definitely wasn’t what she expected.

An octoling soldier, collapsed on the ground in the middle of an alley. Whatever had happened to it, it was out cold.

“Do you think _Jake_ did this!?” she asked, wide-eyed, as she reached out cautiously with one hand to poke the creature’s ear. It twitched upon contact, but the octoling didn’t stir.

“Oh, sure,” Marie scoffed, grabbing her shoulder and making a half-hearted attempt to pull Callie away from their unconscious enemy. “Tiny Jake, with one arm and no weapon, somehow knocked out an octoling soldier.” She rolled her eyes.

“… Okay, yeah, maybe that was a stupid question.” Callie puffed out her cheeks, a little embarrassed. Stress had brought the snarky responses out of Marie today, it seemed. “Does that mean… there’s someone else down here? Someone who’s fighting the octarians?”

“I guess…” Marie looked confused; after all, most people didn’t even know that the octarians _existed_ down here, let alone had the capability to do something like this. “But who—”

Her question cut off with a stifled squeak of surprise at a shout from nearby. Callie jumped back to her feet, grabbing the handle of her roller.

Octolings. At the end of the alley behind them.

Six of them. Half had octoshots, the other half blasters.

That was too many to fight!

Callie felt her body tense up with fear. _No! No time for doing nothing!_

“It, uh… it wasn’t us?” she said hopefully, glancing at the octoling on the floor as she took a step back. The band of soldiers either couldn’t understand her or didn’t care as they piled into the alley, weapons brandished. Callie grabbed Marie’s arm, startling her out of the fearful daze she seemed to have fallen into. “ _Run_!”

 

* * *

 

Marina explained her plan to the two small inklings. Fortunately, it wasn’t too complex; she could sneak them into the base disguised as one of Octavio’s soldiers. The main reason she’d dug out her old outfit was to blend in, after all, so hopefully it’d still work even if her armour was an older design.

“I’ll carry Jake in and pretend he’s a prisoner I’ve captured,” she continued, her words taken in eagerly by the two; Pearl, who looked incredibly excited about a _cool_ _spy_ _plan_ , and Jake, who looked like he was trying his best to keep a level expression. “Pearl, we’ll have to hide you in my bag.”

“ _What_!?” Pearl burst out, quickly clamping a hand over her mouth and glancing over the boxes to make sure she hadn’t caught the attention of anyone outside. Content that nobody had heard, her gaze snapped back to her girlfriend. “Why do I have to go in the bag? Make _him_ go in the bag!” She pointed dramatically at Jake.

“The soldiers are looking for him,” Marina explained, giving Pearl an apologetic smile. “I heard some of them talking when we were sneaking past. They’re looking for a one-armed inkling, so that soldier you knocked out must have had a chance to pass the message along.”

“They are?” Jake’s eyes rounded in surprise and guarded fear. He didn’t strike Marina as a particularly brave kind of inkling, but he had the guts to sneak into this place to help his brother. She didn’t know what he’d been through leading up to this, but she was pretty sure that when they noticed him in the plaza once before he’d had both arms. Had he lost his right one because of the octarians messing with his brother? This poor kid…

“Yeah. If I act like I’ve captured you, they should think I’m just another one of their soldiers,” she nodded. Shrugging off her bag, she rummaged through it, looking for something and also making sure there was enough space for Pearl to squeeze in here in squid form. A thought breezed through her mind, and she glanced at the blue-haired inkling. “You’re still able to turn into a squid, right?”

He nodded.

“Alright, good. Do that.” Marina pulled some rope out of her bag. “I’ll have to tie you up to make it look believable that you won’t escape, but I’ll make sure it’s super loose so you can free yourself easily if things go bad.”

Jake backed away slightly as soon as she pulled out the rope – understandable – but with that explanation he gave another small nod, holding his breath before dissolving into ink. It took him a moment to get into a squid form, and Marina realised with a small stab of guilt that it probably upset his missing arm doing that, but when it did appear, he looked a little lopsided with one of his biggest limbs missing.

She did a test-knot first, making sure he was able to break free if needed, and when that experiment was done she re-tied it, hoping he wouldn’t be too humiliated left on the floor for a moment as a wrapped squid. Marina rummaged through her bag once more, pushing her brella to one side and pulling the jumper that was in there up to the top so at the very least it might be a _little_ more comfortable. She held the bag open to Pearl and looked up at her with a sheepish smile.

Pearl just scowled. “A’ight, but you better leave a gap for me to breathe.”

“Of course, of course,” Marina nodded. In no universe would she dream of hurting her precious Pearlie – including suffocating her in a bag.

When Pearl eventually sighed, turned into a squid and hopped in, Marina zipped the bag up carefully, making sure she didn’t catch any of Pearl’s limbs in the zipper and leaving as big a gap as she dared at the top, hoping nobody would be able to see in.

“You okay in there Pearlie?” Marina asked once she’d gently swung the bag back over her shoulders. It was a little heavy with Pearl inside, but nothing she couldn’t handle.

“Never been better.” There was a strong hint of sarcasm in her muffled voice. “I’ll just pretend I’m on a new ride at Wahoo World or something.”

“Well, if that makes you feel better,” Marina said with a quiet laugh, sliding the goggles down over her eyes. For a brief moment, she flinched, not liking the familiar orange tint they gave the world as a grim reminder of how her life had been until two years ago, but she reminded herself that things were different now and she only needed to wear these until they finished their mission. She carefully picked up Jake in his squid form; he was even lighter than Pearl was, likely due to the missing limb. “Alright, from this moment on, you’re pretending to be a captured prisoner, okay? Act scared.”

He was already shivering a little in her arms. “Acting… right.”

It was easy to find her way up through the deepest city, since this used to be her daily commute. Her old house was here, close to the walls of the base where all the elite octolings were permitted residency, but she didn’t know what state it was in by now and wasn’t willing to make the detour to find out. That was her old life; she wasn’t going back.

As she reached the bottom of the final flight of steps, she took a moment to mentally psych herself up for the task that lay ahead. _You can do this, Marina, act confident. And make sure you only speak in octoling!_

One elite soldier was situated at the door in the wall, a blaster clipped to her belt; a one-hit kill should anyone try to attack. She remained expressionless as Marina approached, watching her through red-glowing shades which made her eyes completely impossible to see. That seemed to be the biggest design change in the soldiers’ uniforms since Marina left. She wasn’t sure why this was, but even she had to admit, the shades _did_ look fresher than the old goggles she was wearing.

As she reached the top steps, she held up Jake in his squid form, holding him tightly enough that it _looked_ like she was using force but she wouldn’t actually hurt him. “ _I have captured the one-armed inkling_ ,” she stated, the octarian tongue feeling foreign to her now after not speaking it for so long. Pearl had tried to get her to teach the occasional word, but it had been ages since she’d spoken to someone who understood it fluently. Even Eight had barely spoken a word of octoling to her.

To her surprise, the guard stepped aside immediately. That was easier than she had expected. “ _Good. Take it to the dungeons, and we shall deal with it later.”_ The guard spoke so blankly and without emotion, it was a little unsettling; maybe she was one of the many who had been emotionally drained by this place. Would Marina have ended up like that if she’d stayed? _I hope you can be freed one day, friend._

Marina nodded, walking on through without another word and hoping the guard couldn’t hear how loud her three hearts were hammering away in her chest.

She was only a few steps past the gate when the guard spoke again. “ _Where are your shades?”_

_Oh no._ Marina froze. _I left them at home, maybe? No, that wouldn’t explain why I’m wearing these instead._ She looked back at the guard. _“They… broke. Last night. Really bad? I wasn’t able to fix them.”_ She mentally slapped herself, knowing the nerves had probably shown in her voice. _Please, please just let me go…_

Still with no emotion, not even the slightest twitch of her mouth, the guard nodded. “ _I’ll get you a new pair. Follow.”_

_“What?”_ Marina blinked in surprise, but the guard was already marching past her, not making any actual motion suggesting she follow but expecting her to anyway. “ _O_ - _okay_.”

She was just going to leave her post like that? Marina didn’t want to point this out, because questioning a soldier’s actions would surely give her away, but that was a little odd. After a few seconds, though, another soldier appeared to take the guard’s place. Had they shown up at the exact time of a shift change? Or did that other soldier just… _know_ , somehow?

Odd.

The soldier led her into the main building of the base and through various corridors which all looked painfully familiar to Marina. She didn’t know why she was getting an escort for this area, but without kelp attached to her mask perhaps they’d mistaken her for just a regularly-ranked soldier. She hoped not; she needed to have free range of the base to find and destroy that machine. Perhaps she’d just have to find a way to knock out this soldier and escape, but she’d rather not have to hurt her if possible; she was just doing her job.

“What’s going on out there?” Pearl hissed, her voice near-silent and muffled but Marina still flinched in case the soldier heard her speak. There was no sign that she had, and Marina relaxed a little. She simply rolled her shoulders, though, unable to reply verbally and hoping that a small jostle of the bag would get her point across. _We still have company. I can’t let you out yet, but soon, I promise._

Once they reached the door to one of the armouries, which was smaller in this building than the one outside the base’s wall since only the elites could access it, the soldier stepped inside. Strange, how they were taking this detour on the way to delivering a prisoner. Shouldn’t that be the highest priority? Not that a one-armed inkling would be much of a threat if he escaped in here… perhaps she was confident they could recapture him.

By the time Marina was in the room, the soldier had already found a pair of the shades, which were presumably sans an owner. They didn’t hold a red glow to them, though. “ _Here. I can hold the prisoner while you put them on_.”

She really didn’t want to hand over this poor terrified kid to an unknown soldier, but she was going to look suspicious if she rejected an order, especially if this soldier thought she was of a lower rank. “One minute,” she said under her breath, hoping her voice had been loud enough for Jake to hear as she handed him over and prayed that the soldier wouldn’t notice how loose the rope around him was. She couldn’t tell if he’d heard her words or not; his eyes were still round with horror in the enemy octoling’s arms. _She won’t be with us for much longer, I hope, just hold on for a few seconds!_

Marina took the shades from her in the exchange, staring at them for a few moments as she opened the frame’s arms out. She had a really bad feeling, but tried to ignore it. _Don’t act suspicious._ She kept her eyes on the ground when she removed her goggles, slipping them into the side-pocket of her bag, hoping that the soldier wouldn’t notice her uniquely-shaped pupils. They were unlikely to get her recognised since she’d worn a mask through most of her time here, and she was pretty sure she didn’t know this octoling, but better safe than sorry.

She closed her eyes as she put the shades on, just so she didn’t poke herself in the eye by accident. She’d done that before with other sunglasses; it hurt.

As soon as she opened her eyes, saw the red in front of her, she was hit by a strange feeling; a really odd, _unpleasant_ one, like the world was spinning in front of her in the beginning stages of passing out.

_No._

_No!_

_Take them off!_

Her arms didn’t move even though she tried to make them. Why couldn’t she take the shades off!?

She felt like she couldn’t move. She felt like she was going to collapse, but somehow she remained standing, didn’t even react.

_What’s happening!?_

The soldier held Jake back out towards her. She barely even registered the fear in his eyes this time. “ _You may continue on your way to the dungeons. Let this creature rot there.”_

Marina didn’t even try to move, she thought, but she reached out and took the cyan squid back into her own arms anyway. She really didn’t feel good. Something was _wrong_. She could feel her conscious slipping, so how had she not collapsed yet?

Despite not attempting to speak, she heard her own voice, formal and stoic. “ _Of course_.”

There was only one thing she heard before everything else faded out; a voice, _that_ voice, one she’d grown to hate more every day since she last heard it two years ago, one which sent her foggy mind into a state of fear.

_I hope you dig this remix. Welcome back, Marina Ida._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know, there probably isn't much logic behind a simple piece of rope being able to restrain a creature that can turn into a puddle of ink. Maybe it's special rope. Maybe they can't transform if they're tied up. Maybe I realised this too late but it's important for later.
> 
> Anyway....... remember how the octoling soldiers have different headgear in splatoon 2 which looks suspiciously similar to Callie's hypnoshades? Well...


	17. Sticking Together

Marie was not usually a fast runner, but the explosion of blaster fire crackling in the air was a pretty good motivator.

“What are we supposed to do _now_!?” she cried, exasperated and out of breath as she raced blindly through the streets after her cousin. She had no idea where they were, or where they were heading, and she doubted Callie did either, but the most important thing right now was to not get separated. At least together they had each other’s backs in a fight.

How Callie could run so fast with a roller to weigh her down was forever a mystery, and not one Marie had time to mull over right now. “I don’t know! Not get caught, I guess?” her cousin called back over her shoulder, taking a sudden turn down another alley. Marie would have missed it entirely if it wasn’t for Callie grabbing her arm to drag her around the corner.

_Could you stop doing that!?_ Marie didn’t dare say the words out loud – she didn’t like being pulled around, but if Callie actually _did_ stop trying to guide her she’d end up losing her in this maze of buildings. “Oh, absolute _genius_! I could _never_ have come up with a plan like that!”

“Do you _want_ to fight six octolings!?” Callie spat back, the panic giving her a rare moment of attitude.

“I _want_ to grab that stupid squid and get out of here as soon as possible so I can wring his neck!”

“Okay, first of all, no neck-wringing! I have no idea what that means but it sounds painful.” Callie hesitated briefly at the end of the alley to choose a direction to run and Marie almost crashed into her – or the roller, which would’ve probably hurt more. “At least if he’s hiding around here somewhere he might hear all the commotion and find us?”

Marie looked at her as if she was mad. “You think he’d hear a bunch of angry octolings and decide to go _towards_ them!?”

Callie grabbed her sleeve again and dragged her into another alley as one more octoling appeared at the end of the street. “Yeah, okay, maybe not.” She raised her voice. “JAAAAAAKE!? IF YOU’RE HIDING HERE SOMEWHERE AND WANT TO SHOW YOURSELF, THAT’D BE _REALLY CONVENIENT_ RIGHT ABOUT NOW!”

If Marie hadn’t been so focused on trying to not trip over anything as they ran for their lives, she would have slapped a hand to her face. Weren’t they trying to _lose_ the octolings? Loudly broadcasting where they were wasn’t going to help!

She really just wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

The buildings were starting to get more closely packed together, and the city multi-layered. They were really close to the base now. That wasn’t good. Would Jake have really made it this far on his own? “Cal, we need to lose these soldiers and head back!” Marie called, hoping Callie would realise there was a more tactical reason for getting away from here other than ‘escape this place’.

Fortunately, she just nodded, though it was a little hard to tell when she was running. “Ooh! Up! That’ll throw ‘em, and I have an idea!”

Somehow, after the events of today, hearing Callie say those words wasn’t a source of comfort in the slightest.

Trying to scale a rickety flight of stairs fast was a new terror to add to the list, especially when a blaster shot exploded unnervingly close to them, but fortunately the grated pathways at the top were too far up for the soldiers’ weapons to reach from ground level and they were forced to climb after the inklings. Marie flinched as her charger caught the railing, causing an awful echoing _clang-clang-clang_ sound.

The path Callie led her on, trying to guess a safe route at every turn, was a winding mess around and even _through_ some of the buildings if they were open enough. Multiple times their entrance was accompanied by a surprised squawk from more octoling soldiers, but with the group already tailing them, most didn’t add to the pursuit. The one that did decide to jump into their path and block the way was quickly shoved aside by a roller to the gut, along with a hasty shout of “ _sorry_!” from Callie for the non-fatal injury she’d given them.

They climbed up another level before one of the metal bridges leading back _away_ from the base was finally octoling-free. Thank cod; now they could actually start to get out of here. There was a flat platform between two of the bridges, pillars on each corner. Callie halted there briefly, motioning for Marie to go past. “Go, go! I’ll stop them following us!”

Marie did as she said, but turned back with a look of shock and horror. “You’re going to _fight_ them!?”

“No way! Come on; keep going!” Callie herded her cousin forward with a rough shove that almost sent Marie to the floor.

Fortunately she managed to keep her balance, running on ahead. _Please, Callie, don’t do anything stupid…_

Oh, no, it wasn’t stupid. Callie had pulled out a suction bomb. Once they were a decent way along the path, she turned and flung it behind them, where the plunger stuck to the grate close to the beginning of the bridge. “Try to follow us now, _suckers_!” she grinned as the octoling party chasing them hurriedly skidded to a halt, the one at the front backing away into the others as it tried to get further away from the imminent explosion. “Ha ha! Get it? Suckers? ‘Cuz it’s a suction bomb?”

“Yeah, Cal,” Marie rolled her eyes, feeling a little better now their pursuers had been halted. Behind them was the familiar whine of an activated bomb. “I get i—”

The bomb exploded with ink. Metal creaked. The ground jolted.

Panic flashing through her mind, Marie dove forwards onto the platform at the far end of the bridge, which fortunately wasn’t moving. Phew.

When she looked back – no time to pick up her charger, _act_ _now_!

The force of the explosion had dislodged the connectors at the far end of the bridge, causing it to break free and swing down. Marie had been close enough to the far end to jump to safety; Callie, further back and weighed down by a roller, was not.

Marie reached out for her. The metal of the bridge smashed against the wall below. She managed to catch Callie’s wrist but the sudden weight was too much for her, and her cousin slipped from her grasp. “ _No_!”

She caught the look of panic in Callie’s eyes seconds before she was sent tumbling to the streets below with a scream of fear.

“ _Callie_!”

The roller hit the floor with an almighty crash, splattering green ink across the tarmac. Marie remained frozen, one arm still reaching out to the world below, watching with horror as she saw her cousin hit the ground, a million thoughts of dread racing through her mind. _No, no, no…_

“ _Owww_ …” Oh, thank goodness. It had been quite a fall but not a deadly one; Callie pushed herself up slowly, wincing, the shades falling from her head. No sign of blood. A few bruises, maybe, but nothing serious.

A long drop… but, well, it looked like Marie didn’t have much choice now but to go after her. She couldn’t leave her alone in this place.

Except she did have a choice, and it had already been made for her.

She was snapped out of her daze as something grabbed her arm. The sound of footsteps finally registered. Marie’s gaze snapped behind her, and she was immediately met with suction-cupped hair and glowing red shades.

_No!_

“Get _off_ me!” she cried out at being dragged away from the broken bridge, as if the octoling would heed or even understand her words in the first place. Where was her charger!? She’d dropped it trying to reach safety and – no, no, another octoling soldier was reaching for it!

This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to just hop into this place, grab Jake, and leave.

She didn’t want to die here.

Marie tried to rip herself free from the octoling’s hold. Jumping from this height might hurt a little, and she’d lose her charger, but she’d much rather abandon that than her cousin. She wasn’t strong enough to break free, though – and then another soldier grabbed her other arm, pulling her back, restraining her.

The last she saw of the streets was a group of octolings closing in on her stunned cousin.

“ _CALLIE_!”

She couldn’t hear any reply over the shouting of the creatures surrounding her. Terror seized her, and she tried to flail out of her captors’ grip, but it was a fruitless effort. She’d been caught. She was going to die.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to go at all.

 

* * *

 

Jake had never been so terrified in his life. Sure, there was the time he’d almost been gunned down by an octocommander, or the time Marie had threatened to shoot him, or the time Rollo had _actually_ shot him… but those had all been very short-lived fears, not dragged on for what felt like forever as he was trapped in the arms of an enemy soldier. He couldn’t understand the words that they or Marina were speaking, probably some kind of octoling language, but Marina _had_ said something quietly to him before she handed him over, so he had to trust that she knew what she was doing.

Still, that didn’t make him any less scared. All he could do was try to hold as still as possible so his shaking wouldn’t dislodge the loose knot of the rope around his squid form, because if that happened, this soldier would definitely know that something was up.

He couldn’t understand what was happening, just saw Marina flinch for a heartbeat when she put on those glowing shades the other octoling had given her, but when the soldier finally handed Jake back to her, he felt like he might pass out with relief. _Phew_.

The soldier nodded and left the room. _Even more phew._

“Can I turn back yet?” he asked quietly, voice garbled a little by his squid form.

“Not yet,” Marina responded simply. She seemed a lot more relaxed now, probably because they’d made it safely into the base and the soldier was gone. Her plan had worked! Now they just needed to find the machine; and she was probably right, they’d all be much safer if they kept up the prisoner act until they got there.

Marina didn’t say another word as she took him, and Pearl hidden in her bag, back out into the corridor. All the signs were in octarian, and Jake didn’t have a clue where they were going, but Marina could probably read them – or knew her way around the place already. It was pretty cool that Jake was on an important mission like this with Inkopolis’ current most famous stars, but even cooler that one of them had so much experience with the place that navigating it would be a cinch. What kind of good luck karma had he been given today that led them to meet?

Jake didn’t know how close they were to wherever the machine might be, but they were walking for a good ten minutes before Marina finally stopped next to yet another unreadable sign. Pearl had been grumbling occasionally, probably fed up of being stuck in the bag, but Marina had stopped making any attempt to quiet her since there were no soldiers within earshot. The entire base was pretty quiet, actually; Jake had only spotted one or two octolings patrolling in the entire time they’d been here.

There wasn’t anything resembling a machine in sight other than some levers on the walls, but apparently they’d reached somewhere, because Marina placed him on the ground and shrugged the bag off her shoulders. The second she opened the zip, Pearl burst out, transforming back into an inkling before she even touched the floor.

“Oh, _finally_!” she sighed, trying to keep her voice hushed as she stretched her limbs. “I haven’t been in such a cramped space since the time my dad accidentally locked me in the cupboard under the sink. _That_ wasn’t fun.”

“Pearl,” Marina stated, apparently not interested in the anecdote as she put the bag back on and picked Jake up again, holding him in the crook of one arm. Maybe they hadn’t reached the place they were looking for after all and she just wanted to let Pearl free. “Could you give me your dualies for a moment?”

Pearl rose an eyebrow at her outstretched hand, but reached for the weapons attached to her belt anyway, unclipping them. She trusted Marina with all her heart. “Sure, but why…?”

Marina snatched the weapons from her, leaving the inkling looking a little taken-aback by the roughness of the action. “You won’t need them.”

“Huh?” Pearl looked even more confused than before – maybe even a little scared. Her eyes flickered to the side as Marina reached out for one of the levers on the wall. “What’s that supposed to me— _aah_!”

The ground split beneath her, a trapdoor in the ground swinging open.

“Marina!?” Jake wriggled in her grip. What was going on!?

He didn’t need to try and free himself; a moment later he was thrown towards the hole in the floor. The ground hit him soon after, cold and hard.

Jake lay dazed for only a second before he shook himself free from the loosely-tied rope, ignoring the sting of pain in his arm as he hurriedly burst back into inkling form. This was some kind of underground room, with smooth floor and walls and no door besides the one in the ceiling.

_Is this a prison cell!?_

Pearl was already back on her feet, glancing around in shock for a moment before she looked up to the only exit, hands balling into fists. “Marina, what are you _doing_!?”

The octoling’s normally kind gaze was hidden behind the glowing shades. Her lip curled, showing her pointy incisors, but her voice was near-emotionless when she spoke. “Putting the inkling _scum_ where they belong.”

A lever clicked, and the door swung shut.

 

* * *

 

Marie couldn’t fight her way out of the mess she was in, but for some reason, she was still alive. The octoling soldiers all had weapons but they all remained clipped to their belts. They had her captured; one of them had her charger – so why weren’t they trying to _kill_ her!?

Instead, they tied her hands together – not her legs, they wanted her to walk somewhere – and pulled her through the city, guiding her _somewhere_. Higher and higher they went, until they half-dragged her up a long flight of stairs that led to a door in a massive wall. There was a large tower beyond that, and an object at the top—

She’d seen that before. That was Octavio’s ship. The same one where Agent 3 had fought him two years ago, the one where Agent 4 had faced him and Callie.

Where _was_ Callie? Marie had tried looking around as she was forced along, but in the brief glances she managed to take before one of the soldiers would shove her forward, she hadn’t seen her cousin.

All she could do was pray that since the octarians had kept _her_ alive, they’d done the same for Callie.

This was all a mess. It was all such a _mess_ …

“What have you done with my cousin!?” she asked, more feebly than intended, when her apparent escorts halted at the top of the stairs. Her words went ignored, and potentially not understood. Another octoling soldier appeared at the entrance into the enclosed area which could only be the octarian base, and one of her captors started talking to them, saying words she didn’t know.

Marie really wished she’d taken more time to learn the octarian language. The best she could do was read a few signs in the aboveground of Octo Canyon.

She’d give anything to be back there right now.

Done with their foreign conversation, the soldiers pulled her along once again, through the door and into the base. Marie took as deep and silent a breath as possible. She had to escape, somehow, but she couldn’t do that if she was panicking.

She caught the sound of footsteps somewhere behind her, of someone else hurrying up the steps. There was a familiar noise accompanying them; the _clack_ of the frame of a roller when someone ran with it.

_Callie!?_ Had she managed to avoid being captured after all?

The octoling back at the gate called out to the others, and suddenly Marie was shoved forwards so roughly that she lost her balance and fell to the ground. _Ow._ The creatures around her appeared to chortle; were they _laughing_ at her?

If not for the fact that she was vastly outnumbered, she’d have broken free from these ropes and punched at least one of them for that – she’d been taught a long time ago how to escape being tied up, it was a must-know in self-defence for anyone famous – but knowing that doing so would probably end with some form of pain or death, she resisted the urge. Instead, she tried to push herself up, which was a little difficult with her hands tied together, but at least she could look behind her now to see what was happening.

As soon as she saw the figure march through the doorway, realised why the octarians weren’t doing anything to stop them, her eyes rounded with fear.

That wasn’t Callie.

All of a sudden, it no longer felt like she was in the octarian base, but at the base of a platform with a thudding pain in the side of her head.

_Agent 4._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "this doesn't seem good" from a few chapters ago seems to apply to Every new chapter and honestly that's just the theme of the story by this point.


	18. Choose Your Plans Wisely

Jake was feeling a lot of emotions currently, but he was pretty sure the strongest ones he could pinpoint at that exact moment were betrayal, disbelief, and _fear_.

He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand _at_ _all_ what was going on. He might not have known her personally, but Marina had always seemed so kind on television, and even until just a few minutes ago she’d been friendly. Had she somehow been holding up an act this whole time? It was one thing fooling a random inkling like him, but how would she have kept any kind of current alignments with the octarians a secret from Pearl? They were close friends, as far as he could tell. Was he wrong about that too?

She was definitely taking this far worse than he was.

At first, Pearl had stared at the doors above in disbelief, as they swung shut and locked the two of them in what was undoubtedly an octarian prison cell of some kind. She stood in place for a long moment, as if she expected this to be some kind of joke and the octoling would reappear with a way to get them out of here and a ‘surprise! Gotcha!’.

Of course, no such thing happened. Pearl’s now-frightened gaze darted around the walls. “M…Marina…?” Her voice came out uncharacteristically quiet compared to the boisterous inkling she’d been up until this point.

Jake didn’t know why this was happening – why Marina had thrown them in here, what the octarians planned to do with them now – but he did know one thing.

“We have to get out of here.”

Pearl startled at the sound of his voice, as if she’d forgotten she wasn’t alone in here. “Y—yeah! Right…” Her gaze was still haunted, and she didn’t even bother asking the question of _how_.

She didn’t make any attempt to do anything, either.

Jake tried to swallow his fear, clenching his fist around the hem of his jumper – _the_ _belt_. He still had the belt! Marina may have taken Pearl’s weapons, but she either didn’t realise Jake had anything on him or simply hadn’t thought to take it from him since he’d been in squid form at the time.

“I have bombs!” he stated, the hint of a cheer in his voice as he plucked one from the dispenser. It whined at being activated, and he threw it towards the wall.

It burst into an explosion of ink a few seconds later, splattering the wall and floor around it and knocking over an empty bucket in the corner, which was the only other thing in the cell with them.

The ink slid off the smooth surface, evaporating into the air.

“Oh.” Jake’s shoulders slumped. Of course whatever dungeon they were locked in would be made of un-inkable surfaces. What would inking the wall do to help anyway? The only way in or out of this room was a door in the centre of the ceiling. “Okay, maybe we need to think of a new plan…” His gaze caught the rope that had been thrown down here with them. “Aha! We also have this!”

Pearl just watched, her face still relatively expressionless, as he lifted the rope from the ground. It was… only about as long as Jake was tall. The ceiling was at least four times that height.

“Okay, maybe… maybe that’s not too helpful either.” Jake sighed. He tried his best to stuff the thing into the pocket of his jumper anyway; it’d be better if the octarians didn’t know they had this.

He really wished he’d brought his phone with him—

“Pearl!” he burst out suddenly, making her jump again. This was a big contrast to the squid he’d met earlier. “Do you have a phone on you to call for help?”

The first tiny trace of hope appeared in her eyes as she pulled out her phone – a rather expensive-looking one, what did he expect – but that trace vanished when she looked at the screen. “No signal.”

“Damnit.” They must be too far underground, too far from Inkopolis down here.

Pearl stared at her screen for another few moments, something Jake wasn’t at the right angle to see. “Ugh!” She shoved the phone back into her pocket and stomped over to the nearest wall, hitting the side of her fist against it, more out of distress than actually expecting that to do anything. “I don’t get it! Why would she _do_ this!?”

“… I don’t know.” Jake didn’t know if that was a question he was supposed to answer. “I didn’t – she seemed nice…”

“She _is_ nice! _More_ than nice! Marina is the sweetest being to ever grace Inkopolis with her presence!” Pearl snapped, turning to glare at him, and Jake took a step back. Okay, that was a lot more like the personality he’d picked up from her earlier, but that didn’t make it any less intimidating. “She wouldn’t hurt a fly, and she doesn’t hate inklings!” As sure as her words sounded, Pearl’s gaze faltered, dropping to the ground as she leant back against the wall, sliding down its smooth surface into a sitting position. “She—she likes inklings, a-and… and she _loves_ me, and I don’t – I don’t know why she’d do this…” Tears welled in her eyes, and she buried her face in her arms to hide them. “I don’t _get_ it, she’s my _girlfriend_ , why would she _do_ this to me!?”

_Girlfriend?_ Jake’s eyes widened. Pearl and Marina were – _ohh, that actually explains a lot._ It also _didn’t_ , because now Marina’s betrayal made even _less_ sense.

That just left Jake, trying to piece everything together with imminent doom hanging over them, trying to stop himself from shaking with fear and feeling in no way prepared to cheer someone up from relationship problems.

If your girlfriend handing you over to a deadly enemy classed as a ‘relationship problem’…

“W-well…” he started, trying but failing to keep the fear from his voice. Who knew what the octarians wanted to do with them? It was surprising enough that they hadn’t just been killed. If Marina really _had_ been with the octarians this whole time, why had she waited until they were deep in the base to do anything about them, and not just killed them on the way here? There would definitely have been enough backup around. “Something’s definitely not right here, but… uh… I’m sure she still loves you…?”

Pearl’s only response was a sob. Yeah… that probably wasn’t a very helpful reassurance right now.

Defeated, Jake slumped down against the wall a few metres away from her, pulling his knees up to his chest.

_What now?_

They were trapped. There was no way to escape. Nobody knew they were here.

What would the octarians do with them? They were alive, for now. If the octarians planned on actually keeping them alive, and not just leaving them in this pit in the ground to starve, the only possible use Jake could think of for them was more brainwash fodder. The machine was still here somewhere, and if Marina was working with the octarians, they’d know that Pearl was an important figure in inkling society. What a great person to have on their side.

Jake… was a nobody, who wasn’t even good at fighting. He wouldn’t even be worth the effort; the octarians would probably kill him as soon as they realised this.

If only he’d just realised how stupid a plan going down here was. Then he wouldn’t be waiting for whatever death or punishment might await him in a dingy cell; he’d be at home, probably being pulled into whatever random vaguely-childish activity Callie might have decided on today.

What would she have thought when she showed up at his house and realised he wasn’t there? She’d tried to call him; she probably noticed that he rejected the call. Had she realised where he’d gone?

He wanted to go home. He wanted to go home, he wanted his brother back, he wanted all this mess to have never happened.

Jake felt tears stinging his eyes and took a deep breath – the air smelled even worse down here than it had in the city. Pearl hadn’t said a word in ages, and judging by her uneven breathing, she was still crying. He didn’t blame her. There was still a part of his being that wanted to try and remain strong because of this, though; that if he could be the one who believed things would be okay for once, it might somehow come true.

Believing was easier said than done.

He didn’t know the right words to console his heartbroken companion, so Jake sat in silence instead, drifting from trying desperately to manifest an escape plan to just… trying to recall happy memories. If he was going to die here, he might as well experience the whole life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing at his own pace and make it seem like a _good_ life.

It was kind of eerie, actually, how much the recent events had made him apathetic about this. To think, only a few weeks ago he’d sent himself into a fit of crying just because Marie pointed a gun at him.

He wasn’t even going to try and predict what she must think of him right now.

The silence dragged out for a long time, until Jake finally heard something other than the distant low rumble of machinery. His ears twitched.

_Voices?_

They were muffled and garbled, probably octarian. Was this it? Were they on their way to get them?

Jake silently promised himself that he wasn’t going down without a fight. Legs shaking, he pushed himself up, putting his hand against the wall for balance. Pearl lifted her head, not looking in his direction.

The trapdoors in the ceiling swung open with a shriek of rusty hinges.

“What are you— _hey— aah_!”

Jake’s surprise at a voice he could actually understand was quickly overruled by the realisation that he _recognised_ it, and his jaw dropped as another inkling fell into their prison, rolling as they hit the ground with a quiet groan. “Oww, not _again_ …”

“ _Callie_!?” Jake shook his head quickly, wondering if he was starting to see things. His gaze darted to the doors again – closing – before he decided the octarians were done here for now and stepped forward.

She’d managed to half-push herself off the ground before she froze, registering his voice. Immediately she looked up, familiarity and relief washing over her gaze. “Jake!”

He had no idea how she managed to spring up so fast, but in the blink of an eye he was hit by a force that would’ve knocked him over backwards had he not been held in place by a tight hug.

“Oh, thank cod, you’re _alive_!” The emotion in her voice sounded close to his ear as she embraced him with the strength of a roller main he knew from his brother – almost crushing, but right now that was the last of his worries. At least she wasn’t squeezing his bad shoulder.

“Yeah, but—why – what – _how_!?” Jake couldn’t get his questions out fast enough. Or his breath, apparently. He winced. “You’re crushing me…”

“Oh! Sorry.” Callie released him from the embrace, keeping her arms out near him for a moment as he nearly fell. She gave a half-hearted smile. “I’m just glad the octarians didn’t kill you.”

“Not yet,” he muttered, slightly winded.

“ _You_!” Pearl’s voice dragged both of their attention to her. She was still sat by the wall, but now her tearstained face betrayed a look of utter shock as she pointed at Callie. “What are _you_ — _what_!?”

“ _Me_?” Callie responded, sounding equally incredulous as she mirrored the accusatory gesture, eyes wide. “What on earth are _you_ doing down here!?” Her gaze faltered as she realised Pearl had been crying. “… Are you okay?”

“My girlfriend abandoned me to the enemy, do I _look_ okay!?”

Callie threw Jake a confused look.

“It’s… complicated?” he offered helplessly. Jake shook his head. “Anyway, what—how did _you_ get here, Callie?”

“Oh yeah, right,” she nodded, brow furrowing a little as if she’d suddenly remembered something. She turned on him. “What the heck were you _thinking_ going down here alone!?”

Jake, not expecting the sudden scolding, took a step away from her. His left arm instinctively went to grab his right, then faltered and went to his empty shoulder instead when there was nothing there. “I-I’m sorry, I just – I thought –”

Callie’s fierce gaze remained for a second longer before it softened. Apparently staying mad at people didn’t run in the family. She sighed and patted his arm. “Okay, you know what? You’ve probably learnt your lesson. Anyway, long story short, we snuck in here on a rescue mission, got chased by some octolings, I accidentally blew up a bridge, yadda yadda yadda, and now here we are!” Callie threw up her arms in a flourish, though her face fell as she took a better look at their surroundings. “In… a dungeon. Yaaay.” The enthusiasm left her voice.

“Great. Welcome to the club,” Pearl huffed.

Callie was silent for a long moment before taking a deep breath – and Jake realised for the first time how much effort she was using just to try and remain positive. He didn’t know whether to feel sorry for her or impressed. Callie pointed to Pearl again. “Anyway, now it’s your turn.”

Pearl, over the distraction now as she dropped her head back onto her knees, sighed. “I already told you what happened.”

“Yeah, in a kinda vague way that didn’t actually explain anything,” Callie said with a pout.

Jake, realising this probably wouldn’t get them anywhere, turned his attention back to Callie’s story. “You said ‘we’… is – was Marie with you?”

“She _was_ …” At the mention of her cousin, Callie’s eyes clouded with worry. “I didn’t see what happened to her. We got separated when the bridge collapsed, and I think she made it to the other side, but…” Her gaze hit the floor, and Jake realised with a pang of fear that there were tears brimming in her eyes. “Augh, I’m so _stupid_! I convinced her to go into this place and now – Octavio wants us both of us _dead_ , the octolings could have _killed_ her!” Her legs gave way beneath her and she fell to her knees, fingers curling into the beanie on her head.

Jake, feeling panic rise in his chest again, desperately tried to think of something to say. He didn’t know.

He didn’t know how to be the strong one. He never had been. Not when he lived with his parents, not in Inkopolis, not when they were trying to save his brother – and definitely not when they were trapped in a prison, and one of their friends could very well be dead.

Jake couldn’t fix this. All he knew was that he understood the feeling of not knowing what the enemy would do with someone who meant the world to you.

_Why does Octavio want to kill them? Is that why he was using my brother?_

“… You’re here,” he said eventually, the realisation dawning on him like the smallest ray of sun breaking through the clouds. “They brought you here. They didn’t kill you.”

For a few seconds, he was worried Callie hadn’t heard him. She sniffed, wiping her eyes with one smudged sleeve. “Right—you’re right.” She nodded, taking another deep breath before pushing herself back to her feet. Jake offered a hand to help her, but she didn’t notice until she was already up, and threw him a grateful smile anyway. “She’s not here with us, so… either the octarians threw me in here with you guys despite having more than one prison, or they haven’t caught her yet. I hope she’s okay on her own.”

 

* * *

 

_No._

_No, no, no, not again, please…_

This was just like yesterday, when he’d lunged at them – but now he wasn’t restrained inside a glass bowl.

_How did he escape!?_

Agent 4 held that same look of murder on his face, the anger with lack of feeling behind it in his one uncovered eye.

The octoling soldiers stepped back, talking among themselves in their strange language. Though Marie couldn’t understand their words, she knew what they were talking about.

They knew who Agent 4 was. They knew he was on their side now.

They knew he was going to kill her.

She’d rather die to one of the octolings than be murdered by her close friend.

Agent 4 stepped forward. Time to make that choice.

Trying to push herself up only sent her back to the ground. She needed both hands. _Shit, okay, fine. Break out of these first._ The octolings’ laughing only got louder as she struggled against the rope binding her hands together – and the sound was _terrifying_ , eerily in sync.

What was she even supposed to do if she broke free? What if the octolings _didn’t_ try to kill her? She couldn’t outrun Agent 4.

The rope was looser now, but he was upon her. She couldn’t escape in time.

_No, no, no!_ She forced the words to stay inside. She wouldn’t give the octarians the satisfaction of seeing her beg for her life.

She braced herself to get hit, squeezing her eyes shut. If she was lucky, getting beaten to death by a roller would knock someone out pretty fast. Hopefully Agent 4 wouldn’t be conscious enough to realise what he was doing, if the octarians didn’t plan on just killing him once she and her cousin were dead.

_I’m sorry, Callie. I’m so sorry…_

The pain she was waiting for didn’t happen. Instead, there was a horrific shriek from one of the octolings.

_What!?_

Green ink splashed the ground. Marie opened her eyes in shock to see the ghost of an octoling soldier float up into the sky; an emergency system recalling it back to a safe place before it could lose its life.

Another soldier cried out; it had been the one holding her charger, and dropped it in favour of trying to grab its own weapon, but exploded into ink from the force of a hit before it could fire.

It was Agent 4. He was… he was fighting the octolings!?

_Stop freezing. Escape._

The material felt like it was scraping her skin off, but Marie finally managed to pull her hands free from the rope. The second she did, she made a grab for her charger, snatching it away before either it or her arm could get trampled by another soldier – who also burst into ink a moment later.

Backing away from the mess, Marie charged her weapon, ready to fight back if she got attacked.

The last soldier shrieked as they were crushed into ink by the roller. Agent 4, out of breath and purple stains on his shirt from where one of the soldiers had managed to clip him with an octoshot, turned to look at her.

Panic set in again, and Marie held her weapon up defensively. “Don’t – don’t come any closer, I—I’ll shoot this time.” That was a bluff. She knew she wouldn’t be able to do it. He didn’t even have the octoling armour on this time to block out the damage of a shot, so there was nothing non-damaging for her to hit.

Still, as they’d learned, a fully-loaded charger fire could rip someone’s limb off in an unprotected environment…

He froze at the threat, slowly lowering the roller to the ground. The ink in it was green, not octarian purple. “I know I probably deserve it,” he said, his voice coming out half-wheezed. “But do you think you could wait until later to shoot me?”

A small smile made its way onto his face. That same one he always used when making a stupid joke in a dire situation, which he’d often done when returning to the Tentakeel Outpost base with a rescued zapfish.

“Agent… 4…” Her voice came out more ghostly than intended. Marie slowly lowered her weapon’s aim to the ground, still ready to fight back if this was an octarian trick. Even if the weapon’s ink was in her colour, being hit with a heavy roller would still hurt, and would eventually kill her. “What are you… how did you get here?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he muttered, looking down at his hands. Both of them were scratched and crusted with dried blood, which was probably his own. Had he managed to break out of the glass prison somehow? “One moment I was in Ammo Knights, and the next I was down here. I figured the octarians wanted me to return to their base, so…”

_So you pretended you were still under their control._ A small spike of resentment burned at him for scaring her with that, but Marie understood why he’d done it – and hey, she wasn’t dead. That was a plus. “Smart thinking,” she said blankly.

He didn’t meet her gaze, or thank her for the half-assed compliment. “I have to destroy that machine.” Agent 4 lifted the roller, having to use more effort than usual to swing it over one shoulder.

“Wait, don’t—” _Don’t leave me here alone._ Marie bit the inside of her cheek. Despite the direness of the situation, her pride wouldn’t allow her to beg him to stay. Not only that, but she wasn’t sure having Agent 4 with her would actually make her feel any better. “This is their base. It’s dangerous.”

“If it means this all stops, that’s nothing.” Agent 4 shook his head. “You should get out of here in case things turn ugly.”

“I’m not leaving without Callie.”

“She’s here too?” Agent 4’s brow rose – with shock or fear, she couldn’t tell. “But – why!? Why did you come here? Octavio wants both of you dead!”

“Well duh, he isn’t exactly the inklings’ biggest fan.” Perhaps she should… leave out the part where Agent 4’s little brother was somewhere in this place, with or without his life.

“No, he wants you and Callie. That’s why he was trying to make me kill you. I told her yesterday – didn’t she tell you?”

“…No.”

Callie had known they were Octavio’s main target and still wanted to go into this place?

If Marie had known that, she would’ve been more adamant about not going – making sure they both stayed as far away from this place as possible.

Now they were here, and she was alone, and the octarians had Callie and they wanted her _dead_ and there was a high possibility they’d already _killed_ her.

The world spun.

_No. No, no, don’t panic now._ There was the chance she was still alive. The octarians hadn’t killed Marie as soon as they caught her. What they’d been planning to do until Agent 4 took them out, she didn’t know, but… there might still be time to save her cousin.

“I’m not leaving here without her,” she stated again, mostly as a reassurance to herself. There was no time to run and get help; she had to do this _now_.

“I can’t go with you,” he warned. Agent 4 tried to hide it, but there was a definite look of fear in his eyes. “I don’t know if they’ll manage to power up the machine again before I can take it out, and I…” His voice trailed off.

She knew what he was worried about; that he’d turn on her suddenly, and she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. “I’ll be alright on my own,” she lied. “Go.”

Her words seemed to convince him. “Very well, Agent 2,” he said with a mock salute. He took a few steps towards the next door before hesitating. “Do you know where my brother is right now?”

Should she lie? No, trying to reassure him wasn’t worth the risk; if Jake was still alive, he could very well be in danger. “… I don’t know exactly, but… we think he’s somewhere down here as well.”

Marie expected him to look shocked at this revelation, but instead, Agent 4 just nodded solemnly. “Right… I had a feeling. If you find him in here, can you look after him for me?”

Did he mean make sure Jake got out of this place, or did Agent 4 expect that he himself might not make it out of this situation? The possible grim resolution threatened a shudder of fear, but Marie managed to remain outwardly calm. “I’ll try my best.”

 

* * *

 

“So,” Callie stated to their little group. “We have… three inklings, a bomb dispenser, a bucket, and about five feet of rope. Any ideas?”

Jake stared at the stuff laid out on front of them – just the rope and the bucket, he still had the bomb belt on – and slowly shook his head. The three of them were sat in a circle now, or more accurately, Jake and Callie had positioned themselves near Pearl so that they were in a vague circle. The small white-haired inkling had barely spoken this whole time, still sulking against the wall.

Callie watched her for a moment, probably hoping that she might contribute. When there was no reaction, she sighed. “Okay, maybe we’ll think of something eventually. Marina was with you guys before, right?”

Jake nodded quietly; Pearl sniffled again, salt rubbed into the wound. “She _was_. Until she turned on us,” she muttered.

“Are you sure?” Callie asked, resting her head on one hand as she tilted it to one side in confusion. “I mean, I don’t know her super well, but Marina seemed really sweet when we met her before. Y’know, when we all had a meal together that one time? She kept making sure you wouldn’t choke from shoving too many fries into your mouth at once.” A slight smile appeared on her face at the memory, and she looked hopefully at Pearl to see if it would get mirrored back.

It didn’t. Pearl only reached forward, poking at the frayed end of the rope on the floor with one hand. “I don’t get why she changed. Was she faking it this whole time?”

Callie’s smile faded as she let out a quiet sigh. “I don’t know. That’d be so much… did anything weird happen while you were in this place?”

“How should I know?” Pearl scoffed. “I was hidden in her bag so the octarians wouldn’t find me. Shrimpy here was the designated _captured_ _prisoner_.”

“Hey!” Jake protested, not liking that apparent nickname.

Callie’s brow furrowed with confusion. She looked to Jake. “Did you see anything?”

“I don’t know what I’d be looking for,” he shrugged helplessly. “Although… there was something kinda weird that happened. There was a guard with us for a while, and Marina handed me over to them at one point.”

“What? Why?”

“She needed her hands free to change her headgear. I guess the other octolings thought she just had an old mask, or something, so they gave her a new one like theirs. The guard gave me back to her, though, so I guess she was working with them—”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Callie interrupted, waving her hands. Her expression was a mix of enthusiasm and horror, as if she’d realised something important. “You said like the others—the— the octoling soldiers wear _shades_ , right!?”

Jake nodded.

“ _Hypnoshades_!” Callie cried out, her voice so loud it reverberated off the smooth walls. “Oh my cod, _that’s_ why! Marina isn’t working with the octarians; they’re _controlling_ her!”

“What!?” Pearl looked horrified.

“Oh, that’s _awful_! She probably didn’t even realise – poor Marina.” Callie shuddered. Noticing Pearl’s expression, she continued. “The hypnoshades are, like… fancy shades that brainwash you. They do _look_ really fresh, but don’t put them on, trust me. I guess they had more than one pair… or…” She stared up at the ceiling. “Or maybe… maybe _all_ of the octolings have them. What if Octavio is controlling _all_ of them now?”

Jake swallowed nervously. Every time he heard something about this Octavio guy, he seemed to get worse.

“So… so Marina didn’t willingly throw us in here?” Pearl checked, starting to look more animated now that she’d been given this information. She threw her arms into the air. “ _Yes_! I knew Marina would never betray us like that!” A second later, her expression turned back to horror. “Holy fuck, we have to _save_ her.”

“Right.” Callie nodded. “So we need to think of a—”

“Escape plan!” Pearl sprang back to her feet, marching to the centre of the room and looking up at the doors above. “We need to… think of one. Don’t you worry, Marina, we’ll break out of here and get you back!”

Callie and Jake watched this sudden transformation and exchanged a surprised glance.

“She recovered quickly,” Jake commented under his breath.

Callie shrugged with a smile. “Hey, at least she’s not sulking anymore.”

“You say somethin’?” Pearl asked, turning to look at them.

“I said you’re right, we do need to think of a plan,” Callie bluffed, picking up the rope. “Too bad this is so short. We might be able to get that door open with bombs, but there’s no way to get up there.”

“With bombs?” Jake gave her a confused look. “How? It’s on the ceiling, and I only have splat bombs.”

“Well, they took my roller, so I don’t have suction bombs, but splat bombs _will_ explode on impact if they hit something with enough force,” Callie explained.

“Oh, oh! Like the rainmaker’s shield,” Pearl nodded proudly.

“Or the barrier around the zapfish!” Jake added.

“Exactly! We don’t have a high-energy field, but if we throw a bomb hard enough it might blow up. I already destroyed a metal bridge with a bomb today, so I guess the materials they have here aren’t super great.”

“Sweet!” Pearl cheered, jumping on the spot. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s bust outta this joint!”

“That’s the spirit!” Callie clapped her hands together, and then pointed up. “We still need a way to actually get up there first, though.”

“Hmm…” Pacing back and forth, Pearl tapped a finger against her chin. “You use a roller, right? You’re strong. How high can you throw someone?”

Callie looked a little surprised by that question, but still thoughtful. “Not high enough. Squids are still kinda heavy.”

Pearl pointed to Jake. “What if they’re missing part of their body?”

“Huh?” Jake blinked in surprise. He didn’t particularly want to be _thrown_ , but if it was the only way for them to escape…

He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or not when Callie shook her head. “An arm isn’t, like, half someone’s body weight, even in squid form.”

“Dammit. I thought I was onto something there,” Pearl huffed, dropping herself down to sit in their new circle, away from the wall this time.

Jake stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. This was a prison cell, so they weren’t supposed to be able to get out, but… “The octarians must get in here somehow, right? Like… they must have a way out, if they wanted to take a prisoner somewhere.” _Or if one of them fell in by accident. Unless they just get left in here to die for their mistake…_

“Ooh, right! Although, I doubt we could sneak out with them. They’d probably take precautions against that,” Callie pointed out.

“Wait, I got it!” Pearl said triumphantly. “One of us pretends we need to pee, then the guards take us to the bathroom, and _blammo_! We get the drop on ‘em and let the others out.”

Callie pulled a face. “That won’t work. I think there’s a reason they gave us a bucket.”

Pearl’s gaze fell to the metal pail, her face contorting with disgust as she shuffled away from it. “ _Eww_! Okay, we gotta break outta here ASAP, I am _not_ pissing in that.”

_Rich people._ Jake resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Although, honestly, he’d rather not do that either.

“Y’know… the guards here all seem to be octolings,” Callie said slowly, as if she was thinking about something. “Pearl, you’re a singer. Do you know the lyrics to the Calamari Inkantation?”

“Um, excuse me, I’m an _MC_ , thank you very much,” Pearl scoffed. “And yeah, ‘course I do. Marina plays it all the time; I could practically recite the words backwards by now. What, are we singing to keep our spirits up or somethin’?”

“Great! And no, not quite – not _ours_ , at least.” Callie rubbed her hands together, eyes gleaming with newfound enthusiasm. “Alright, listen closely. I have a plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Pearl and Marina are good friends I think"
> 
> Also thank you all so much for 1000 hits on this story !! ;o; My silly squids. I love them.


	19. A Heavenly Song

Pearl was caught in a vicious circle of pacing back and forth, realising she was doing it, forcing herself to stop so she didn’t annoy the others, then starting again when she drifted from forced attention to her own actions. They had a _plan_ now, they might be able to escape, but they had to _wait_.

Pearl was not a patient squid.

“Should we practice? We should practice,” she muttered, her voice quieter than usual, but in this small smooth-walled cell it would definitely be heard by her fellow prisoners. “Like, what if I forget a word?”

“We don’t want them to hear us,” Callie said with a shake of her head. “Not until we want them to, anyway. You’ll be fine.”

“Is the dance important? Like, there’s a dance, right? I only know some of it.”

“We probably don’t need the dance.”

“But it might _help_!”

“Well, just… do the parts you _do_ know?” Callie, as far as Pearl knew from the handful of times they’d met and what she’d seen on television, was usually an enthusiastic happy-go-lucky sort. If squids actually had bones, she wouldn’t have a mean one in her body. Yet right now, there was a strain in her words, as if she was holding back a sharp retort. That was something Pearl experienced from other people often, especially the studio staff.

Never Marina. Marina almost never got mad at her. Not _seriously_ mad, anyway.

With an over-exaggerated exhale, Pearl slid down the nearest wall, stretching her legs out in front of her. She didn’t want to wait. Who knew what could be happening to Marina out there? The octarians might have brainwashed her just to drag her into their army, or they could plan to do things that were much worse than just turn her back into a soldier.

_‘I have no idea if Octavio realised I left. If he did and he finds me there, he’ll have my head.’_ Marina’s words back at Ammo Knights echoed in her mind as a punch in the gut. “I shouldn’t have persuaded her to come down here,” Pearl sighed, mostly speaking to herself.

Callie, knees pulled up to her chest, hugged her legs a little closer to her body at that statement, as if it was something she could relate to. Her brow furrowed a moment later. “Wait… why _did_ you come down here? If it was _your_ idea…”

“Oh! Right, right, right, so…” Enthusiastic about the distraction, Pearl rubbed her gloved hands together. “Me an’ Rina, see, we heard a suspicious noise at Ammo Knights, so I bravely squeezed under a door and ventured into the unknown, and discovered… a _squid_!” She held her hands up eerily, wiggling her fingers, as if she was telling a campfire story. When that didn’t garner much of a reaction, she pointed to Jake, who didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her tale. “His brother, apparently. Said there was some kind of brainwashing machine down here, so I was like, ‘hey Marina, we could totally sneak in there and destroy it!’, and like, maybe we could find out if this was where the Great Zapfish went too, y’know?”

“It probably is,” Callie responded with a small nod. “If I had to guess, based on the last two times… Octavio probably has it.”

“The last two—you mean it was _stolen_ before?” Pearl gazed at her with round eyes. “It didn’t just wander off for a few weeks?”

“Oh. Maybe that was classified info.” Callie gave a half-hearted laugh. “Yeah… something like that.”

Pearl narrowed her eyes. How did Callie from the Squid Sisters know so much about the octarians? “How did you find this place again?”

At the question, Callie visibly stiffened. “It’s… a long story.”

“Well, we’re trying to kill time, ain’t we?” Pearl crossed her arms stubbornly.

She still looked reluctant to answer. Callie pressed her fingers together for a moment, as if trying to think of what to say, and eventually decided to divert her attention to the other squid with them instead. “Jake? You okay?”

_Don’t ignore me!_ Pearl puffed out her cheeks in a pout. Still, she had to admit, she was a little concerned for that kid; he’d been staring blankly at the corner for a while now, curled up against the wall. This whole situation was _nothing_ for a totally hardcore inkling like Pearl, she told herself, but for a regular, average squid who hadn’t helped save the world before? He was probably terrified.

Still, if he had the guts to go down to this place, alone…

Jake startled as the sound of his name dragged him back to attention, and he blinked at the ground for a moment, as if trying to remember where he was. “Y-yeah, I’m… I’m okay.”

Callie placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll get out of here soon. Then we just… find Marie and Marina and leave this place.”

He didn’t look entirely convinced at her everything-will-be-okay speech. Pearl had a feeling it wouldn’t be that simple, but she liked the positive vibe going on and decided to add to it. “Yeah! Let’s blow this dump.”

Appreciating the help – or perhaps that Pearl wasn’t pressing on that story she still wanted to hear – Callie threw her a small smile. A moment later, her ears twitched. “Someone’s coming.”

“They are?” Pearl focussed on the silence for a moment, trying to listen for any noise, and after a few seconds she could hear footsteps in the distance. Her hearing wasn’t super great; she only had tiny ears. “Oh, shit, dude, are we ready?”

“We’ll have to be,” Callie shrugged, climbing to her feet and offering a hand to each of her cellmates to help them up. Jake let her pull him up; Pearl had already sprung back into standing when she was half way through the gesture. “Assuming they don’t just walk past, you know what to do.”

Pearl and Jake both nodded, even though the blue squid didn’t really have much of a role in their plan. He was to help them figure a way out of the cell based on what the octolings did, if anything. An extra brain was always useful.

The marching steps stopped above them, and within the brief silence, Pearl could hear her hearts thundering with anticipation. She really hoped the others couldn’t hear that. Being afraid was totally uncool.

Something clicked up above, and the door in the ceiling swung open. Metal creaked and gears churned as a circular platform lowered down through the gap. Three octoling soldiers hopped onto it as it passed the main level, and from the way the platform didn’t tilt much from the imbalance, it must have been very heavy.

Perhaps, on regular terms, that would have been few enough soldiers for them to take on, one each, but the octolings were armed. Two held octoshots; the third had one clipped to their belt, and instead brandished an odd-looking weapon Pearl had never seen before. It let out an eerie humming noise and had no ink tank attached. Even if that piqued her curiosity, she didn’t want to experience what it could be capable of.

The platform reached the cell floor with a heavy _clang_ , and two of the three soldiers stepped off. One of the approaching octolings, the one holding a regular weapon, pointed the octoshot at each of them in turn, commanding something in octarian. The meaning behind it was clear enough. As the prisoners held their hands in the air, Pearl exchanged a glance with Callie, who met her gaze with an equally determined one and gave the smallest nod.

Quietly and warily at first, they sung out the first line of the Calamari Inkantation.

Pearl’s words started to get bolder when she saw the octoling soldiers hesitate. She could hear both of their voices reverberating off the cell wall, which might have actually been helping. The enemy pointing a gun at them slowly and uneasily dropped the aim of their weapon to the floor.

It was _working_!

Gaining confidence now, Callie started to do a mild version of the dance moves that went with the song; without music to accompany them, that made it easier to keep to the beat. Pearl watched her movements and tried to mimic them as best she could. She was really starting to regret all the times she’d pulled Marina past the Squid Beatz machine in the square, but even if it made no difference, she was determined to be as good a Marie stand-in as possible.

Marina was going to be so jealous when she found out that Pearl got to sing her favourite song with _Callie_ from the _Squid Sisters_.

Well, out of context, maybe. Marina was probably going to feel bad about the reason _why_ they were doing this. All the more incentive to escape this place and save her as soon as possible.

Callie skipped the instrumental with no music to fill it, and Pearl missed a few words with the sudden unexpected lead-in to the next verse, but it didn’t seem to harm anything. The octarians were still just stood there, listening to them; the one on the platform was even lightly bobbing their head along to the words.

Jake, remaining silent and trying to not distract the soldiers from their song, stared at Callie and made a small motion of pointing to his glasses.

Callie didn’t make any obvious reaction to him, but she was watching; she must have noticed. With her attention locked onto the octoshot-wielding soldier, she began to ever so carefully make her way towards them as she sang. The octoling didn’t react to her approach.

_She’s trying to take the shades off._ Pearl tried to focus on getting her lyrics correct and resisting the urge to hold her breath as Callie very slowly reached out towards the octoling’s face.

One of the other soldiers cried out. The air crackled.

Callie’s line was cut off by a scream.

The force of the shot flung her straight to the ground. Electricity burst from her body as her voice gave out and her inkling form dissolved into magenta.

“ _Callie_!” Jake cried out. Pearl only stared in shock, unaware that she’d been backing away until she bumped into the wall behind her.

_Oh cod oh cod oh cod—_

She’d been hit by electricity before. It was _horrible_. She didn’t wish it on any of her friends and she definitely absolutely did _not_ want to go through that again.

The sparks faded slowly, leaving the pink squid laying helplessly on the ground and stunned from whatever she’d just been hit by. Callie tried to transform back, but her squid shape only trembled, not letting her.

Now Pearl understood what that weapon was; some kind of taser that forced anyone hit by it into their cephalopod form, rendering them essentially harmless.

The octoling holding it pointed the thing at her, barking an order she couldn’t understand and briefly pointing it to the ground.

_No no no no no I don’t want to get hit by that no—_

The soldier stated their order again. They wanted her to do something. The message broke through her panic.

_Turn into a squid or I’ll make you._

Pearl didn’t need telling twice. She dove into her tiny squid form, trying to hide the fact that she was cowering against the wall.

The octoling Callie had been trying to save just now pointed their weapon towards Jake, a possible similar threat except a shot from their weapon would be death. He changed into his squid form as well; Pearl noticed him wince before his expression vanished.

Stepping off the platform, the final soldier reached down and picked up Callie, who made a feeble attempt to escape but could barely move. The three octolings returned to their lift, one holding Callie’s squid form tightly and the other two threatening the remaining prisoners so they didn’t try anything as the platform began to slowly rise back up to the ceiling of the cell.

It was only when the doors above swung shut with a screech of hinges and a _clang_ that Pearl dared to change back to her inkling form.

“Ohhh boy. Oh fuck. This is—this could be very bad,” she worried aloud, pacing again. Her hands were shaking. This wasn’t very cool, but being cool was suddenly the last of her concerns.

“What did they do to her?” Jake asked, bursting back into inkling form also, one hand flying to his missing arm as it stung from the upset. “And—and what are they _going_ to do with her!?”

“Something incredibly terrible and evil, I would imagine,” Pearl stated, but this probable truth didn’t seem to make him any happier. It didn’t make _her_ feel any better, either. “Okay, we gotta find a new way to bust outta here, asap.” She rubbed her hands together. “I think I have an idea, but it might be dangerous.” The octarian machinery down here was fancy, but it didn’t look very tough. Nowhere near as hardy as the gear they used up top, in the singing contests…

“What is it?” Jake looked a little wary of her plan, eyes creasing with worry, but even he knew their time was running out and a Pearl plan might be their only way out of here.

“Well…” Did she have time to explain everything? Nah. She couldn’t hear the footsteps of the soldiers anymore; they must have been far away now, off on their quest to wherever they were taking Callie. The list of people to save was getting longer every minute. “Cover your ears.”

“What?” Jake’s eyes rounded in panic and confusion, and he looked down at his one arm. “How…!?”

Pearl rolled her eyes. Everything always had to be so complicated, didn’t it? She reached out to clamp her hands over his ears – which Jake initially tried to get away from, before he realised she was trying to help.

This would either work, or she’d end up bringing the entire building down on top of them. Pearl decided to be optimistic. She took a long, deep breath.

“ _BOOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!_ ”

Her ear-splitting screech made the ground tremble. The sound echoed off the smooth walls and stung her ears, but it was a _satisfying_ kind of pain. What an awesome loud noise she’d made!

The springs on the trapdoors screeched as the mechanism keeping them closed gave in and they swung open. Something snapped in the rooms above.

A second later, the platform slid down, smacking the edge of the gap in the ceiling and taking one of the doors with it. It crashed to the ground with such force that the surface of the concrete ground under it cracked like a sheet of ice. The chain dribbled down after it, jolting to a halt when it reached its maximum length from whatever it was attached to above.

The broken door skittered across the ground towards them, landing in a crooked mess at their feet. Pearl took her hands back, staring down at the dented metal as Jake shook his head to try and get over the disorientation from feeling like the world was going to collapse.

“Huh. That went better than expected!” Pearl cheered.

Jake put a hand to one ear, as if checking it hadn’t exploded, or something. He still looked incredibly frazzled. “What was—how did you _do_ that!?”

“I’m totally amazing, that’s how! That wasn’t even my best one. You should’ve seen how much destruction I caused _last_ time!” Pearl held her head high, a proud grin on her face. Her audience didn’t look impressed, to her disappointment; just slightly mortified. “Oh! Right, we still need to get out of here. Hmm…”

Fortunately the chain had stayed. It was swinging gently now, and Pearl reached out to tug it to see if it was stable. It didn’t detach from that, which was a good sign. She could probably climb out. Jake wouldn’t be able to with a missing arm, though, and she wouldn’t have a free arm to carry him…

Her gaze darted around the room until it rested on the bucket in the corner, which they’d stuffed the rope inside. “Aha! Perfect.” Pearl pointed at Jake. “You! Get in the piss bucket.”

“The what?” Jake blinked at her in shock, and then glanced at the bucket, pulling a face.

“Nobody’s _actually_ taken a whizz in it, stop being such a baby!” Pearl tutted, giving him a shove in the direction of the corner. “We don’t have much time, so it’s either that or I stuff you into my shirt, and neither of us want me to do that.” She marched on ahead, pulling the rope out of the bucket and firmly tying one end to the handle and the other around her waist.

Jake, a smart boy, decided to choose the bucket. “Okay.” He’d probably worked out what her plan was now. Turning back into a squid, he hopped into the pail.

“Good! Rad. Let’s get outta here.”

Pearl grabbed onto the chain again, hauling herself up. Silently she thanked her father for the entire playground he’d built – well, paid someone else to build – in the back yard when she was a kid, even if the floor of that had been a lot more padded than the one here. It was difficult to climb with the extra weight pulling her down, but at least the chain was easy to get a grip on, even if it did make her hands sting after a few seconds.

She tried to climb as fast as possible, knowing someone must have heard the racket she made and would be on their way to check. Once she reached the cell door, she swung herself over, catching one foot on the floor above and using that to manoeuvre herself up onto it.

“And that,” she stated as she yanked the bucket up after her, turning it over and shaking the squid out like a cake in a tin, “is what a totally smart plan looks like.”

Jake looked a little wobbly, remaining in squid form for a few seconds as he adjusted to there being solid ground under him after being swung around so much in that bucket. He slowly transformed back into his inkling form. “That… _was_ a pretty clever plan.”

“It sure was!” Pearl continued to gloat as she untied the rope from herself. Perhaps she should hang onto this bucket for now; it was the closest thing they had to a weapon, other than bombs. “Okay, we need to get away from here before any more dudes show up. Pick your favourite direction and let’s boogie.”

 

* * *

 

With no clue where those octolings had taken Callie, or where they might find Marina, Pearl and Jake picked a random direction and ran until they thought they were a safe distance from the dungeons. When nobody chased after them, they took to being sneaky instead. Once they saved her from this place, Pearl was definitely going to gloat to Marina about how her super sneaky spy approach _was_ useful after all.

“What’s the plan now?” she asked after bundling Jake into what looked suspiciously like a broom cupboard, except with no brooms.

“Why are you asking _me_?” he rebutted, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible.

“Hey, I can’t make _all_ the plans! Genius has its limits.” Pearl tutted. “But if you insist; we sneak around out of sight, all stealthy and ninja-like, until we spot Marina.”

“What about Callie? And—I think Marie is here too, somewhere.”

“We’ll probably conveniently find them along the way. I’m always finding stuff when I’m _not_ looking for it.” Mostly, she just wanted to find Marina as soon as possible, but she wasn’t going to show favouritism. Definitely not.

They continued to sneak around, hiding behind crates and whatever weird odds and ends the octolings had decided to build their base out of. Pearl was riding on the adrenaline of their cool escape, and finally being out of that cell after what felt like days despite probably being an hour at most, so fortunately there weren’t that many soldiers around for them to hide from, because she would seriously have struggled to remain still and silent more than once every few minutes.

Soon they found their way to a building which was slightly apart from the others and looked like some kind of warehouse. Pearl glimpsed something shiny inside, and that was enough to make it worth looking into. Jake made a quiet comment about moths and fire before reluctantly following her, not wanting to be left alone down here.

She didn’t regret her decision.

“ _Whooooaaaaaa_! Weapon _city_!” Pearl gawked as she pushed open the heavy door. Fortunately there were no octolings inside to hear her amazement. The walls and surfaces were lined with every kind of weapon imaginable, from what were simply more deadly versions of turf weapons to specials and even knives, swords and maces. None of the soldiers she’d seen had any of the more old-fashioned ones; perhaps some of these were weapons left over from the war a century ago. It was like looking into a museum. A very crowded museum, where half the place was a load of old junk.

“Oh!” Jake made his way carefully along a path of various ink guns and metal sheets to the corner where everything had been thrown haphazardly and grabbed the handle of a weapon which was, for one, way too big for him, and completely unwieldable with one hand. It also looked a lot different than the others. “It’s Callie’s roller!”

“You’re gonna break somethin’ if you try picking that thing up,” Pearl warned, though she kind of wanted to see him try just because it might be amusing. He at least managed to drag it from the pile, and she felt her jaw drop again; she knew Callie used a roller, but she’d expected a splat roller, not whatever fancy thing _that_ was.

Callie had good taste.

Were her dualies somewhere in here? Pearl swerved around Jake, who she hoped wouldn’t insist on taking that giant thing with them because neither of them would be able to carry it, and rummaged through the pile. There were a few old broken weapons in here, but no dualies at all, let alone hers. Didn’t the octarians know what was fresh? “Darn.”

“I guess we’ll have to come back for this when we’ve found the others,” Jake commented, not really paying any attention to Pearl as he set the weapon back against the wall. He looked back to her, tilting his head at her muttering. “Looking for something?”

“Just my dualies. They ain’t here. Sheldon only just fixed them up this morning and everything!” Pearl huffed, standing back up to her meagre full height and crossing her arms. “Whatever. Guess I’ll just grab somethin’ else in the meantime.” She knew that Eight liked to use an octoshot in turf war; they weren’t much different than a splattershot, right? One of them would do. “Maybe we could find, like, a splattershot junior for you or something. Or you can just be our bomb guy. Either works.”

She headed in the direction she thought she’d seen a bunch of octoshots in earlier. This place was like a maze, but made entirely of guns. Cool but dangerous, and very expensive. In the back of her mind Pearl wondered if there was a way they could blow this place up when they were done, because then the octarians wouldn’t have their weapons. Although, there were far more weapons here than there were soldiers to wield them anyway, and the ones they’d seen were already armed…

A shadow appeared in the line of light from the door, and Pearl quickly ducked behind a nearby board, motioning for Jake to do the same. Uh oh. Hopefully this was one of the soldiers coming to dump their weapon and they wouldn’t realise there was anyone else in there.

As the octoling walked further into the room, Pearl chanced a glance through a gap in the board – and immediately she sprang from her hiding place, ignoring Jake’s muffled gasp of protest.

She didn’t care that she was in plain sight now. All she cared about was that she _knew_ the octoling in front of her, and she was prepared to do whatever it took to get those shades off.

“Marina!”

 

* * *

 

The octarians’ base was incredibly quiet.

This was one of the first things Rollo noticed; that he didn’t meet more resistance. He was not the sneaking type, and now armed with the knowledge that the octolings here had the use of some kind of respawn system, he wasn’t afraid to face any of them head-on and take out any that got in his way.

He didn’t have time to waste. The voices in his head had stopped, for now, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the machine was re-powered and they’d come back and Octavio would have him on his side once more.

Marie was out here alone. Callie had been captured. Jake was here somewhere too. Rollo knew that he’d be able to beat any of them in a one-on-one fight, and that was _horrifying_.

All the promises of a new life out here in Inkopolis, and Rollo might have dragged his brother to his death.

_Stop it. Stop thinking about it. Focus, and maybe you can save everyone. You saved Callie once before, remember?_ His hands were shaking on the handle of his roller. One thing he needed to remember was that this was just his turf weapon, a replica, much less powerful than the advanced hero roller he’d managed to destroy fighting Octavio the last time, and even more likely to break.

As long as he could find some way to destroy that machine, and get everyone out of here… that was all he needed to do for now.

His search of the buildings sent him through one where an alarm was whining overhead. It was annoying, and his first instinct was to look elsewhere, but he knew the alarm meant something was _wrong_ , and that might be a good start.

Metal clanged underfoot as he raced through the hallways, subconsciously trying to decide if the constant wail of the alarm was worse than the unwanted voices or if this might drown them out if they came back. An octoling running the opposite way noticed him, and immediately dived into a nearby room. They weren’t armed, and looked afraid of him.

What was happening?

As he progressed, he realised this hallway looked familiar, although the memory was fuzzy, as if it was from when he was half-asleep.

_This is where I was,_ he realised with a small feeling of hope. _This is where they took me with all the flashing lights – and at the end of this hallway is a large door leading to the room where the machine is. I think._

He turned the corner, and the screaming of the alarm was drowned out by his own confusion and shock.

The door had been ripped off its hinges. A lamp provided the only real light in the room, but it had snapped in half and was flickering wildly. All across the floor were pieces of metal and broken glass, as if something had exploded and shattered the machinery. The chairs in the room, both the one used to hold down the victim and the regular office seats, were torn up. Electronics lined the walls with shattered screens and severed wires, a few of them giving small bursts of visibility as they let off sparks.

With every flicker of light, yellow ink glinted on the ground and walls; the residue of a fight.

“What on earth…?” Rollo muttered under his breath as he took in the scene in front of him. This wasn’t anything like he’d expected.

The machine had already been destroyed. A while ago, possibly, if that was the reason he’d fallen out of the octarians’ control when he arrived down here.

That meant something – or some _one_ – got here first.

He didn’t know who. He didn’t know why, or how, but it was definitely a good thing that the machine was gone. Instead of dwelling on what might have happened here, he needed to find everyone else and get them all to safety.

Rollo turned on his heel, eager to get out of this noisy building. Perhaps things were starting to look up after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look it's the first bit of good news in weeks (or... a few hours, in-story time).


	20. Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter: there is some blood.

In the back of Marie’s mind, she regretted not shoving her new distrust of him aside and talking Agent 4 into sticking with her in this place. At the same time, she _really_ didn’t want him to see how much of a nervous wreck this whole situation was making her.

She’d managed to remain so calm and collected a few months ago during their last encounter with the octarians, even if it was mostly on the surface; why couldn’t she do that _now_!?

The base didn’t feel nearly as crowded as the lower city, where there’d been soldiers patrolling every other street. Here, there was only the occasional octoling marching past, most of them donning the elite-rank kelp on their heads. Perhaps the fights with Octavio in the past had exposed a lot of the elite octolings to the Calamari Inkantation and thinned their ranks, if others had ditched in a similar way to Marina, from the way she’d talked about the song saving her life on one of the few times they met.

Marie found the space in her jumbled thought process to be glad that the enemies were scarce; her hearts were beating so fast she was sure at least one of them might explode if she was in even more danger.

She didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t know what she was looking for. All she knew was that she needed to find Callie, and she had no clue where the octarians would have taken her, so she was by herself, making her way deeper and deeper into the heart of enemy territory.

Every sound of footsteps made her freeze up, her eyes would dart around for the nearest hiding place, and she’d hold her breath as the soldier passed right by her, hands shaking against her fully-charged weapon. Her hand was starting to hurt from holding the trigger down for so long, but if she was going to survive down here, she needed to be able to fight back in case of a sudden ambush.

Then the soldier would be gone, and their footsteps would fade, and she’d force herself to breathe as much as possible until it didn’t feel like an effort again, despite how disgusting this place smelled.

 _I can’t do it._ The thought repeated over and over in her mind and she was unable to kick it out. What was she supposed to do, alone, just one inkling with a sniping weapon against a whole army? _I won’t be able to save Callie on my own._

_I don’t even know where they’ve taken her._

_I don’t know what they’ll do to her._

_She could already be dead._

Marie shook her head vigorously. No, she couldn’t think like that. _She_ was still alive, she had to hope Callie was too.

It was kind of funny, really. Callie always pinned herself as the one who was too dependent; who relied on her sensible cousin to sort things out. But Marie knew from experience that her life just fell apart without Callie there.

She had to keep going. There was no way she could give up and let Callie die.

Somehow the thought of how much her mental health would get pummelled to the ground after all of this felt like a reassurance; the thought that there _was_ an after, that she and everyone else would get out of this place alive and reflect on how terrible everything had been, but by then things would be _fine._

As she made her way through the gap between two buildings, looking out for any sign of where the soldiers might have taken her cousin – quite literally a sign, she’d started to understand some of the octoling symbols by reading the words dotted around Octo Canyon whenever she was waiting for Agent 4 to show up for his next mission – she tried humming under her breath to try and calm her nerves. It was actually working, a little, even if she ended up pausing in dead silence every few moments just to make absolutely sure she couldn’t hear any octolings nearby.

The first few notes of the chorus of _Tide Goes Out_ died in her throat – she hadn’t sung that since that last fight, when she’d desperately sung it to try and snap Callie out of her hypnosis and remind her _who she was._

And she remembered the octarians had that _machine_ here, and if they’d kept Callie alive – what if they used it on her? What was stopping them from turning her back into their pawn, in such a way that she couldn’t be taken away from them as easily as shooting off a pair of shades?

Marie felt sick.

She’d at least been vaguely prepared to defend herself from Agent 4 if he turned on her, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to do the same if it was her cousin– and Marie couldn’t help but imagine the scenario in her head, of Callie under their control, glaring at her with that same look of hatred and murder that Agent 4 had harboured when he attacked her—

 _Stop! Stop thinking about it! That’s not what’s happening right now!_ The world spun with the many devastating paths that unravelled themselves in her thoughts, all the possible ways one or both of them ended up dead or dismembered, and the only thing that finally snapped her out of it was her charger clattering to the floor as it slid from her grip.

Freezing in panic, she snatched it from the ground and dove behind the nearest cover, glad that she’d apparently let go of the charge before dropping it because a charger shot would have been a _lot_ louder. Holding her breath felt suffocating now, but there was no sign that anyone had heard, no footsteps marching towards her, and she let out the breath she’d been holding in a heavy gasp.

 _Come on, Marie. Pull yourself together. This is really,_ really _not the place to be having a breakdown. We keep searching, we find Callie, we find a way to save her, and we get out of here. If Jake’s still alive, we either find him on the way or hope Agent 4 can deal with that machine on his own and is able to save his brother in the process. Jake means as much to him as Callie does to me; he won’t leave this place without him._

Thankfully, the mental motivational talk was working. Her hands were still shaking as she clutched her charger, which was starting to look pretty scuffed by now, but breathing was easier. She could do this. Maybe she would have to keep mentally repeating this not-too-detailed plan to herself, but if that stopped her from wanting to give up, so be it.

Continuing on her stealth mission, Marie tried reading the few octoling signs she saw, but to no avail; there weren’t enough symbols she recognised to be able to understand what any of the words said, except something she was pretty sure read ‘HQ’, which wasn’t very helpful because she already _knew_ that was where she was.

The sound of footsteps, _lots_ of footsteps, caught her ear, and she ducked into the nearest shadow, once again wishing she could get the white parts of her hair to change colour. Whoever it was didn’t sound like they were heading her way, thankfully.

Then she heard an incredibly muffled voice – one she could only barely understand, one she _recognised_.

“Where are you taking me!?” The words were barely even formed properly, but she knew. She _knew who that was._

“ _Callie_.” The word slipped out involuntarily, but there was nobody around to hear. The footsteps in the distance didn’t change.

Callie was alive. She was still _alive_!

In the hands of the enemy, who were attempting to silence her from the sound of things – but _alive_. That was a great start. An _excellent_ start. Marie could find out where she was, too, because undoubtedly the footsteps were the octarians taking her somewhere. She just had to follow the sound and she’d find her cousin.

The base was a mess of buildings, some better-made than others, but at least there were little to no dead ends and it was easy enough to keep travelling in one direction. There was a faint alarm somewhere in the distance, which Marie realised had been blaring for a while now; maybe that was something to do with Agent 4, maybe it was unrelated to them entirely, she couldn’t tell.

Finally, she caught sight of movement in the distance, and realised just how close she was to the giant spire in the middle of the base. It towered far above the other buildings, and its design looked suspiciously close to Inkopolis Tower. A large circle around it was devoid of buildings and littered with the material that had been used to make them.

Making their way towards the tower were four figures; three octolings, and the prisoner they were guiding along.

_Callie._

Her arms were tied behind her, with so much rope there was no way she’d be able to break herself free in the same way Marie had done. Callie’s stride was off, and every few seconds she stumbled against the soldier pulling her along, and while Marie hoped she was just trying to find a way to escape, the lack of any reaction from the octoling suggested they’d done something to her that was making it harder for her to move.

They’d put tape over her mouth, too. Poor Callie. Had she really managed to piss off the octarians _that_ much just by talking?

Marie hadn’t been spotted yet; not by the soldiers, not by her cousin. They were within range, she could probably take out the one holding Callie, and without a second thought Marie held down the trigger of her weapon to charge it up.

But… there were three of them. They all had weapons. Even if she could take out one of them, there’d still be two left; if they attacked her she’d be able to make one shot at best before they could hit her, or even worse, they could turn on Callie instead, and tied up with no weapon she was completely helpless.

 _I’m sorry, Callie, but if I try to do anything now it won’t end well for either of us._ Biting the inside of her cheek, Marie sunk back into the shadows of the building. She’d have to follow them and wait for an opportunity to show itself.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that was going to be easy; the three soldiers led Callie to a railed-in platform in the centre of the tower’s poles, forcing her onto it when she seemed hesitant and stepping up after her. One of the octolings pressed a button while another closed the gate, and the platform started to rise.

Marie let her eyes follow the tower upwards – and felt her stomach churn with fear.

The giant ship where agents 3 and 4 had battled Octavio hovered above it.

They were taking Callie to Octavio.

Marie was running out of time.

Her gaze fell back to the slowly-rising platform. The machinery below made a loud noise and it was held up by a singular smooth pole; there was no way to climb up after it and the sound would let everyone around know it was being used. There wouldn’t be any way to sneak in.

Callie looked terrified; she must have realised what the UFO above them was, and she’d never been a fan of heights. Her gaze darted around to everything that wasn’t the floor directly below her.

Then her eyes locked with Marie’s – and immediately brightened in relief. Maybe because she now knew that Marie was still alive; perhaps because she knew there was a chance of being rescued now.

_I’ll do something. I promise._

No sooner had Callie noticed her than she quickly averted her gaze, so the octolings surrounding her wouldn’t catch on to where her cousin was hiding. Marie shrank back a little more, knowing that if Callie had noticed her here there was a chance the octolings might too, but none of them did. It was probably difficult to see from such a distance with those shades on.

Now all Marie had to do was work out how on earth she could save Callie from that place on her own.

 

* * *

 

A haunting silence befell the room as the octoling didn’t speak a word in response to Pearl’s outburst.

Marina was barely recognisable; she hardly even _looked_ like Marina anymore, in her soldier gear and with her ink colour now faded into the octarian purple. The long tentacles of her hair usually twitched and swayed with her emotions, but now they hung still and useless, as if the creature who stood there as Marina felt nothing.

If Pearl ever met that… _Octagon_ guy, she was going to give him the fiercest kick in the nads for what he’d done to her girlfriend.

Exacting revenge would have to wait for now, though. She had to get Marina back first. Pearl didn’t exactly know how to do that; the shades were hypnotising her, so remove them and she’d be good, right? Right. That sounded like an excellent plan. An excellent Pearl plan, which would work perfectly like all her other Pearl plans, if she could find a way to pull it off. That was the only reason why most Pearl plans didn’t work, definitely.

Pearl had a whole of five seconds to consider her options before there was a weapon pointed at her. _Two_ , in fact.

“ _Whoa_!” Pearl jumped back, almost knocking over a weapon display, as two pellets of ink shot towards her. She was out of range, fortunately, but the thought hadn’t quite registered fast enough.  “A’ight, that’s not allowed!” Marina took a step forward and Pearl took one back, careful not to bump into anything this time. “You can’t just take _my_ _girlfriend_ and use her to kill me with my _own_ _weapons_!”

Of course, that was why her dualies hadn’t been here. Marina had taken them from her, not one of the regular guards. Pearl’s instinct was to try and find something to defend herself with, but that was quickly smothered by the stronger instinct of _don’t hurt Marina_.

How was she supposed to get the shades off if Marina was _armed_ and Pearl couldn’t fight back? All she had was a rope-bucket – and she’d put it down when she was searching through the pile of weapons. For her dualies. Which Marina had. Dammit! If only she had Marina’s brella, but as far as Pearl knew it was still in her bag, which Marina was still wearing, and if she was able to get close enough to obtain that somehow it’d make much more sense to just remove the shades.

Well, Pearl was in a whole building full of weapons right now. Perhaps she could find a brella here somewhere?

She’d have to do it _fast_.

Pearl dove for the nearest path of shelves. “Wah!” Purple ink splattered the floor behind her. _Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad—_

“There’s more of them coming!” Jake hissed urgently. He’d ducked behind a barely-visible table but was peering out over the top, looking between the gaps of shelves at the door and telling Pearl all the things she really didn’t want to hear.

“Well shit, _do_ _something_ then!” Pearl waved her arms frantically.

“What am _I_ supposed to do!?”

“I dunno! Scare ‘em off, strap a gun to your missing arm and pretend to be a cyborg or something, I’m _busy_!”

No sooner had she said that, not-Marina burst into the aisle between them. Jake yelped in fear, but she ignored him; Pearl was her target, it seemed. Perhaps the octarians knew that he wasn’t much of a threat.

Then Pearl was running – running and trying to take in all of her surroundings for something she could non-violently defend herself with, as well as trying to think of some solution to how she could get those shades off.

Fortunately for her, Marina did not know how to properly use dualies. They’d tried swapping weapons before in their turf war escapades, and it had never ended well for either of them, landing them at the bottom of the team ranking and a few mutters from the others in the room who’d recognised them. It was apparent now that the few practice games hadn’t stuck with Marina, as she accidentally caught one of the buttons for dodge-rolling on the weapon and the force immediately sent her crashing against the nearest wall.

Pearl winced, but Marina barely even flinched at the impact, pushing herself off the surface and running for her target.

She couldn’t find any brellas here. Why were there no brellas here? That was awfully inconvenient of the octarians and Pearl cursed them for it. She needed a plan, and it had to be a plan which was more productive than running around a warehouse and hoping that Marina would run out of stamina before she did, because that would absolutely not be the case.

The doors to the building closed one at a time with a mighty slam, so at least Jake was _actually_ doing something to keep the backup soldiers at bay. When Pearl caught a glimpse of him through all the mess, he’d managed to shove a rusty charger behind the door handles, effectively locking them shut. Getting _out_ of here later might be difficult, but… at least they’d have Marina to help come up with a solution for that one? Hopefully?

What if being brainwashed had some kind of lasting effect? What if Marina wouldn’t be the same once she saved her?

 _No! She’s gonna be fine. I just have to do… something._ Pearl narrowly avoided getting pelted by purple ink as she skidded around a corner. She was starting to run out of breath; she needed to work out how to fix this _fast_. If only Callie was with them; she seemed to know more about these shades than they did, perhaps she’d know what to do. Pearl actually felt a little bad that they hadn’t tried to find where the octarians had taken her…

Then she remembered _how_ that’d happened, and as their encounter with the soldiers came flooding back to her, so did an idea. Thank cod!

“Marina—Rina, listen, it’s your fav song!” Pearl called, and sang out the first line of the Calamari Inkantation. This had worked against the other octolings, and Marina claimed it as her saviour, so it _had_ to work!

It didn’t.

“Oh shiii—” Pearl had to dive under a table, scrambling ungracefully on her hands and knees to get out the other side before she could get shot. “Why!? It worked before!”

Marina leapt over the table. Ah, geez. Why did her girlfriend have to be so good at stuff? It was making this incredibly inconvenient.

“Callie was singing with you before! Maybe—maybe that makes a difference?” Jake called from across the building. From the sound of things he was trying to stack more objects against the door to keep the other soldiers out. If anything, it’d at least create more of a mess for the octarians to climb over if they managed to break in.

“Oh, great! It’s singer-locked. That totally makes sense!” Pearl scoffed, but perhaps he did have a point. Okay, new plan. Time to go off the hook.

The first tune that popped into her mind was Fly Octo Fly; it was a recent song they’d made together, and they’d sung it to cheer on Eight when she covered that giant statue with ink from the hyperbombs. Maybe that would get a response?

Marina hesitated—only briefly, but it was _there_.

And then she… threw a gun at her, because Pearl was currently out of shooting range.

“That is _not_ how you use those!” Pearl interrupted her own singing to huff indignantly. She loved her girlfriend, but these dualies were her babies! They deserved to be treated with respect! Being snatched from the ground so it didn’t get damaged was going to have to be enough respect for now, though, because Pearl still didn’t want to get shot. She liked her weapons, but she wasn’t dying for them.

Her plan had sort of worked, so this time she skipped the rest of the first half of the song and tried the next best thing; the remix of Ebb and Flow at the end.

It was a little awkward, and heart-breaking, singing her lines and only getting empty space in the gaps where Marina’s would be. Marina was the one who created the base for this song, and it would always be important to them as their first major hit, so if it could only break the control and _get through to her_ …

She’d stopped. Marina had stopped chasing her. She hesitated like the soldiers had done except this time it was _their song_. Pearl, more out of breath than she was willing to admit, slowed her pace to a halt and turned to face her, hoping she could get the shades off before she ran out of lines to sing. Would it have a negative impact if she just repeated the chorus again? Probably not.

Now that her words weren’t broken up by her running, Pearl’s singing was clear and strong. Marina froze, the one remaining dualie she held falling from her grip and clattering to the floor as her hands quivered, as if the real Marina was gaining the strength to fight back and trying to remove the shades.

 _Come on, Marina, you can do it…!_ Pearl didn’t want to interrupt her singing to cheer her on, because this was the thing that was working. She felt a spark of hope light in her chest.

Pearl took a step forwards; Marina took one back, bumping against the table behind her and causing everything on it to rattle as she placed her hands on the surface to steady herself. She was still shaking, lip curled back and showing her pointed incisors.

Cautiously, Pearl closed the gap between them, trying to avoid scuffing her trainers on the floor in case the smallest noise might break the trance. If Marina couldn’t take the shades off herself, Pearl would just have to do it for her. _I’ll save you, Rina, I promise. Just a few more seconds…_

She reached out. Marina flinched away, but Pearl would still be able to reach the shades—

Quick as a flash, Marina lunged for her, slamming her fist into Pearl’s shoulder. The shock made her voice falter, and it took half a second of numbness and _that’s a really weird way to punch someone_ and Pearl catching a glimpse of the table behind her – full of sharp objects – to realise what had just happened.

_Shit._

_FUCK._

The pain hit when Marina drew her hand back.

A knife. She was holding a coddamn knife. She’d fucking stabbed her. Oh cod.

Panic set in, and in a last-ditch effort, Pearl did something she never would have done otherwise.

Lash out.

Her hand caught the side of Marina’s face.

Finally, _finally_ dislodging those damn shades.

Marina crumpled to the ground.

The ground was at a weird angle.

The world was spinning?

Pearl’s legs gave way beneath her.

Her shoulder hurt. It hurt a whole damn lot.

She hit the ground and immediately cried out in agony.

That wasn’t very cool.

_Marina?_

Pearl clasped a hand to her shoulder, unable to tell if that made the pain better or worse.

Her ears were ringing.

_Marina!_

She couldn’t tell where she was.

“Pearl!”

That… didn’t really sound like Marina?

_Shit, man, that was whack._

_If I’m gonna fucking bleed out here, Marina better at least be okay._

 

* * *

 

Marie felt like she’d spent hours waiting here, hiding in the shadows, trying to think of a way she could get up to that ship, but in reality it had probably only been a few minutes.

Launchpad? No, she had no way to make one. Go up on the elevator? No, it’d announce her arrival and she’d only walk right into an ambush – or get thrown off the tower, and a fall from that height would almost certainly result in death, bones or not. She still had bruises on her arm and side from falling off that platform in the arena. Grapple up somehow? No, she didn’t have anything to use _or_ the upper body strength. Would also likely result in her falling to her death, if she even made it up far enough.

Her ears twitched at the sound of footsteps – _fast_ footsteps, someone running.

Then an octoling cry of alarm. Marie ducked further into the shadows, looking around in panic for anyone who might have spotted her.

More running. From the other direction, she was pretty sure.

Two soldiers ran out into the clearing, and into her line of vision. One held an octoshot; the other a brella. Marie held down the trigger of her charger, in case she needed to fight back, but they didn’t seem to be looking at her.

A blur of green blasted into the scene, narrowly dodging fire from the octoshot and smashing the octoling wielding it with a heavy weapon. They burst into ink, faded form snaking away to safety.

 _Agent 4._ He was back, and clearly not under the octarians’ control if he was fighting against them. Was he still looking for the machine, or had he managed to destroy it? If the latter, that was… _fast_.

The brella-wielding octoling fired at him, some of the purple ink hissing against his arm, and when he tried to swing the roller at them the brella’s canopy protected the octoling from getting splatted. It wasn’t really a great weapon matchup for a roller.

On the other hand, the soldier was facing away from Marie, and holding the shield still made them a very easy target.

His opponent suddenly getting sniped startled Agent 4 – he never used to be that jumpy – and he looked around warily for a few seconds before his gaze finally rested on her, and he let out a small sigh of relief.

Content that he was _probably_ safe to be around now, Marie emerged from her hiding space. On any other occasion she probably would have said something sarcastic, but she didn’t quite have the energy for that right now. Sass would have to wait. “Did you find the machine?”

“I did,” he nodded, looking confused. “It was already destroyed when I got there. That must have been why they lost control of me in the first place.”

Marie’s eyes widened in surprise – and rounded even more when she tried to work out who other than them could have done it. “ _Jake_ …?” No way. If that kid had actually managed to do what he planned, despite being pretty weak and missing an entire _limb_ —

It wasn’t too surprising when Agent 4 shook his head. “I don’t think my little bro could’ve caused that much damage. The place was totalled and there was yellow ink everywhere.”

“ _Yellow_ ink…?” Marie frowned. It _couldn’t_ be… there was no way. One of the octarians must have just… messed something up, really badly, and destroyed the place. Maybe they changed colour sometimes. She gave her head a quick shake. “Anyway— I know where Callie is. Up there.”

She pointed up. Agent 4 followed the motion with his eyes, and grimaced when he saw the UFO. “… Ah. Octavio.”

“Most likely, yeah. As far as I can tell, the only way up is on that elevator.”

“Alright.” Agent 4 gave an accepting nod and stepped towards it, as if she’d just asked him to do something as simple as go to the store and buy milk. “You coming, or staying here?”

“You’re _going_?” Marie stared at him incredulously. “The sound from that thing will let them know we’re coming. It’s loud.”

“Good. Then they have enough time to surrender.”

He might not have been under the octarians’ control anymore, but Agent 4 still held some of that vicious energy. Marie couldn’t very well let him go alone into that place and get himself killed.

“Well… that’s the spirit, I guess? I’ll go. We have to save Callie.” Not to mention, she didn’t want to be left down here alone – both with the octarians _and_ her own thoughts.

 

* * *

 

Everything was… fuzzy. The sound, the sights. It was pretty dark, too. Where was she…?

It felt like she’d had some kind of weird fever dream. Was she sick? All she could remember was Pearl singing, but that might have been part of the dream, and before that… before… that…

Red.

The shades.

She’d put on the shades.

_Pearl._

Pearl had been there. Just now. That part wasn’t a dream, right?

“Don’t—don’t try to move, you’ll make it bleed more, just—just stay still, I think, aah I don’t know what to do…”

That wasn’t Pearl. She knew that voice, right? That squid boy. What was his name? Joseph? Jim? … Jake, maybe that was it.

“No, I—I need— where’s—is M-Marina… okay?”

 _That_ was Pearl.

She sounded hurt.

_No._

Marina tried to push herself up from the ground and nearly face planted it again. The shades were gone. She could just make out the slight glint from them across the floor, and while she wanted to crush them and make sure they couldn’t be used again – they probably had more here, anyway, what was the point – she needed to find Pearl.

Her vision faded back in, and she realised Pearl was nearby. On the ground, in a foetal position, one hand held with force to her left shoulder.

The hand was covered in blood.

The _floor_ was covered in blood.

_No… no no no no no!_

“Pearl…” Her voice came out so small, and she couldn’t tell if it was the lump forming in her throat or an aftereffect from whatever terrible things Octavio had done to her.

He’d made her hurt Pearl.

Her Pearlie, who she loved more than anything, who had helped her get over everything that happened in this place.

And she’d brought her in here and _tried to kill her_.

“Pearl!” She managed to half-push herself up this time, and that was all she really needed because her girlfriend was only a few feet away, and she just needed to _get to her_. The other inkling – Jake, she was pretty sure that was his name – moved away to give her space. He looked horrified.

Marina sobbed, tears running down her face. This was her fault. She’d been so _stupid_ , she should have been more wary, she shouldn’t have put on those _stupid shades_. Now, Pearl was…

“Pearlie, I’m—I-I’m so s-so-sorry,” she hiccupped, holding her hands up to her mouth.

Why? Why did she let this happen!?

“Ugh…” Pearl groaned, her small body curling up more as she grimaced in pain. “Apology accepted… ‘m gonna… need so many jars of mayo to make up for this, though.”

A helpless laugh of relief broke its way through the sobs, and Marina felt the smallest watery smile tug at her face. “How many?”

“Ten.”

“That’s many.” Marina drew in a deep breath – and coughed as that pushed all the cry-slime into her throat – and pulled her bag off her shoulders. Panic later. Feel guilty later. She needed to do something to help _now_ , before it was too late.

“Can you save her?” Jake asked, a tremor in his voice, as she quickly sifted through the contents of her bag, pulling out her brella and the jumper.

“I ain’t need savin’!” Pearl protested through gritted teeth.

Marina ignored her. “I hope so.” Her voice still shook, and she sniffled, but she had to focus. Focus, focus, focus. She folded up the jumper and placed it on the ground, then tried to roll Pearl onto her back so she could use it as a pillow. Of course, that was met with a lot of complaining. “This will help, Pearlie, I promise. I need to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.”

Pearl groaned, trying to open her eyes but they only rolled. “Shit hurts…”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” Marina bit her lip. This shouldn’t have happened, she shouldn’t have let this happen, she never wanted things to end up like this, she should have convinced Pearl to not go down into this place.

She’d brought limited medical supplies with her, just in case, and fortunately one of the things she _had_ brought was some gauze, which she could press against the wound. It was more difficult than necessary, thanks to Pearl trying to fight her off because it hurt, but Marina was willing to put up with the nails clawing at her arms if it meant saving her. She glanced around for the knife and saw it on the ground a few metres away; it was smeared with blood, but it didn’t look like the wound was _too_ deep. At least there weren’t any major organs in someone’s shoulder. They needed to get Pearl out of here and to a hospital as soon as possible, though.

How were they even supposed to get out of here? They couldn’t call for help, there wouldn’t be a signal.

Maybe Pearl wouldn’t be saved after all. Maybe none of them would be. At least they were safe in here, for now; she could see the door to the weapon warehouse had been barricaded.

_Crash!_

Marina looked up in alarm.

Perhaps she’d thought too soon.

Glass from one of the high windows clattered on the ground. Shoes connected against the hard floor with a _thud._ A young octoling soldier landed at the base of a long fall from the window.

Marina, ignoring the gasp of pain from Pearl, reached for her brella. She wasn’t going to let anything else happen to her precious Pearlie.

The soldier wasn’t after them.

Jake let out an alarming shriek of pain, suddenly enveloped in an endless maze of electricity. His inkling form vanished before he finished falling, pooling against the ground in a puddle of blue that slowly formed into a twitching squid.

Marina watched in horror as the soldier lowered their weapon; a rare taser-type one that she hadn’t seen in use before but had _heard_ what it could do, and seeing it in action was ten times worse. She held her brella threateningly, trying to climb to her feet, but she was still shaky and only ended up falling back to her knees.

All she could do was watch helplessly as the soldier walked over to the suffering squid and picked him up by his remaining longest limb. Jake was paralysed from the electricity and couldn’t even attempt to get away.

The soldier hit something on their belt, and in a flash of light, the two of them just… vanished.

Teleporters. It was surprising there was even enough energy here to power one, but with the Great Zapfish here, maybe… if it was a short distance…

Marina was left in silence once more. Silence, and a soft moan of pain from Pearl, who was probably barely aware of what had even just happened.

 _What could they possibly want with him? Why didn’t they go after me?_ Surely Octavio must have known she wasn’t under his control anymore. She didn’t understand, but at least Pearl hadn’t been harmed any further.

Marina sighed and went back to applying pressure on the wound. _I’m sorry, Jake._ She barely had the energy to get up, and Pearl would bleed out if she didn’t do this. _I don’t know what they want with you, but I don’t think I can help you now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never mind, I think we're out of "things are looking up" territory and back into "hmm, that seems bad" again.


	21. The Worst Choice to Make

Marie resisted the urge to cover her ears at the shriek of metal given off by whatever mechanism was pushing the elevator up, knowing she had to be prepared in case any octarians showed up to attack them. A roller wouldn’t defend them from enemies at range, but few things could outrange a charger, and even if she only held this responsibility for a few minutes, it still felt like an incredible weight on her shoulders.

Soon… soon they’d reach the top, they’d go in, they’d find Callie, they’d save her. It was just like before, right? Things worked out before. Things could work out again now.

The haunting thought did cross her mind a few times that she was now trapped on this small rising platform with Agent 4, and if he had somehow been acting and _was_ still under the octarians’ control it’d be _so easy_ for him to kill her, but albeit being held tensely, the hero roller replica remained at his side. Hopefully Agent 4 remembered the fact that his current weapon was just a replica, and not as powerful as the original one – but if he’d spent the month between their octarian encounters using this one in matches, he was probably accustomed to its limitations by now, or at least, Marie sure hoped that was the case.

Despite the awful racket announcing their approach, no soldiers showed up to stop them. In fact, when they reached the top of the elevator – _don’t look down, that’s a really long way_ – a gangplank-like slope led up into the ship, completely unguarded.

“This smells like a trap,” she observed, grip tightening on her still-fully-charged weapon. Her hands were starting to hurt again.

Agent 4 hesitated for only a second, and then hiked the roller up over his shoulder, prepared to march almost single-handedly into the enemy base. The enemy base _within_ the enemy base. “It’s only a trap if they can catch us.”

Marie pulled a face, and not a hopeful one. She prayed his tunnel vision wouldn’t get them killed, because as much as he seemed to believe in his own skills, she didn’t entirely believe in hers, and unless all the enemies were conveniently out of range to hit her and not in vast quantity, she wouldn’t be able to do much to defend herself.

Perhaps she’d be the one walking into a trap, but she didn’t fancy going back to being alone with the octoling soldiers, so… she’d just have to be vigilant. That wouldn’t be too hard, given how on-edge she’d been all day.

Had it really only been this morning that the Great Zapfish had been stolen? That felt like a week ago now. There wasn’t even any way to tell if it was still daytime, this deep underground.

Marie really hated this place.

She hesitated as Agent 4 crossed the ramp to the ship, just in case the trap was for it to collapse under them both. When he reached the other end safely, a door in the bottom of the UFO, he glanced back briefly at her and motioned for her to follow before disappearing from sight.

_Impatient much?_ He was one for getting things done, had been since the day she met him. He’d also never tackled any of his agent missions when he _wasn’t_ alone in the field. Marie sighed, keeping her eyes on the door at the other end of the ramp as she quickly made her way across, absolutely not wanting to look down at the long fall below.

The inside of the ship looked much better-made than the rest of the city and base. It was almost as intimidating as knowing how much danger likely awaited them here; it was like stepping into a different world. A long strip of neon light illuminated the passage in front of and behind them, and from what Marie could see, she’d guess it looped around the circumference of the ship. Doorways were spaced along the inner wall, except instead of there being an actual solid door in them, the gaps were filled with beaded curtains. Was this an enemy base or a nightclub?

With no idea where they were going, checking where one of the doors led to seemed like a good start. Marie couldn’t help but feel incredibly small as she pushed the bead curtain aside; she was about the average height for an inkling, but octolings were usually taller than them, and the ceilings were incredibly high up, accommodating that and then some. Not to mention, Agent 4 was half a foot taller than her. Since meeting him, the subject of his height had brought back the age-old jokes from Callie about being “the taller cousin”, even if she only had an inch on her.

It’d be so great to finally go back to her biggest worry being what stupid thing Callie would decide to poke fun at her for next.

Another eerily-glowing tunnel awaited them, but this one was much shorter and had light at the far end. Agent 4 frowned but didn’t stop, warily approaching where it opened out.

Marie recognised where they were as soon as she could see the surroundings. They were in the stands surrounding the arena where Agent 4 had fought Octavio before, except instead of the seats being crammed with octarians, the place was eerily silent.

And, in the arena, guarded by one lone soldier, unsteadily stood a familiar inkling.

“Callie,” Marie spoke under her breath.

“Can you take out that soldier from here?” Agent 4 asked quietly, bracing himself for action.

“I think so,” she nodded, not wanting to waste any time as she aimed her weapon.

The soldier looked up. _There’s no time for you to move!_ Marie may have doubted some of her skills, but her aim with a charger wasn’t one of them. She released fire and her charger went off with a mighty _BLAM_!

The octoling vanished in a flash of light.

“What!?” Marie almost dropped her weapon in disbelief.

A line of green ink splattered the ground from the stands to the arena, covering the lower ground in-between, including _exactly_ where the octoling had just been standing. Callie startled from the sound of the charger fire and lost her balance, falling to the ground with a muffled “oof!” and unable to catch herself since her hands were still tied. _Sorry, Cal._

That soldier hadn’t been splatted; there wasn’t enough ink on the ground for that. So _where_ —

Another flash. From behind.

The octoling re-appeared in the corridor behind them. Marie heard the sound of Agent 4’s roller click, ready to attack, but she wasn’t sure this space was even big enough for him to be able to use his weapon effectively.

There was no time to charge a shot, barely any time to react at _all_ , because the soldier was running for _her_.

Marie’s only instinct was the one other method of defence she had with this weapon; pull out a splat bomb.

The octoling didn’t take out any sort of weapon; they just lunged for Marie, and she couldn’t get away before they grabbed her arm.

Then the world seemed to spin and flash, and the next thing she knew she was thrown to the ground with a force that felt more than if she’d simply been pushed over. Her charger clattered against the hard floor nearby.

The floor of the arena. How did she get down here!?

An octoling shriek echoed out as the splat bomb went off. If this one could teleport somehow, they must have dragged her down here with them. At least the bomb hadn’t been left behind. The recall system dragged a ghostly form of the octoling away.

_Yeah, that’s what you get._ Marie shakily pushed herself off the ground, wincing as the old bruises from where she’d fallen off that tower began to hurt again, as well as the healing injury on the side of her head. She was more than ready for this to all be over with.

It would be, soon. They’d found Callie. That soldier was gone, for now.

Callie had managed to struggle back up into sitting, and let out a sound which was probably supposed to be “ _Marie_!”. She didn’t sound relieved that she’d found her.

Climbing unsteadily back to her feet and looking around for her charger, which had rolled a few feet away, a sudden new noise dragged Marie’s attention upwards. Not an octoling sound, or an inkling one.

_The Great Zapfish!_

There it was, above them. It let out a gargled cry, flailing its fins desperately as it was dragged into a large mechanism hovering in the air far above the arena.

_Oh no._

_No, no, not again…_

She’d had false hope that the only thing standing between them and freedom was that one soldier, but perhaps she was a fool for believing that even for a second.

There it was again, the second version of the Octobot King. It looked incredibly worse for wear, some sections looking like they’d literally been stuck back together with a large amount of duct tape, so someone had clearly tried their best to put it back together since Agent 4 destroyed it with the rainmaker a few months back. The second platform still remained, but was empty this time.

The flying machine hovered down, in view but out of range.

“GYAH HA HA! You finally show up! So nice.” Octavio peered down at her from the safety of his craft.

Marie didn’t want to hear his voice. She didn’t want to see his face, ever again. Octavio was the cause of _all_ _this_ , everything that was currently _ruining her life_.

He was scared of her. That was why he was staying out of her range. He’d witnessed her shoot the hypnoshades off Callie in their last encounter, he knew how exact her accuracy was; that was why he’d tried to take her out during that fight. Fortunately, witnessing a giant spinning fist of death heading to crush her cousin like a pesky fly had been enough to finally snap Callie out of her post-hypnosis brainfog, and thanks to Sheldon’s quick manoeuvring – or rather, extreme panicking – Marie hadn’t been hit.

She’d rather not go through something like that again. Almost dying once was enough for one lifetime, and she was already many times over that threshold in just the past few months.

“Uh huh. Short visit, I’m afraid.” All of her fatigue had been pushed aside by sheer spite of how much she _hated_ that octopus, and her sass seemed to have returned to her. Thank goodness; she really didn’t feel like herself without it. “So, thank you _so_ much for your kind hospitality of trying to murder us, but we’ll be leaving now.”

Behind the ladder shades, Octavio narrowed his eyes. Pissing him off was probably a death wish, but man, it felt so refreshing to actually have control for once. Marie was aware of Callie’s horrified gaze boring into her. _I know, I know, I’ll try and get us out of here._

There was a quiet _splosh_ as Agent 4, still green, landed as a squid in the trail of ink her charger had left before. He quickly transformed back, glared at Octavio, but said nothing else as he went to free Callie from the rope around her arms.

“Ah, you!” Octavio turned his attention to Agent 4. He didn’t seem too concerned about his capture being freed – which was unnerving, since it meant he was sure they wouldn’t be able to escape. “That slimy squid who ran away. So glad you decided to return.”

“Sure. _Decided_.” Agent 4 scoffed. After some fumbling, he managed to untie the rope.

Callie shook her arms free, rolling her shoulders a few times before quickly pulling the tape off her face so she could speak again. “ _Oww_ …!” Too quickly, apparently. She flung the tape aside and rubbed her cheeks sulkily.

“Close enough.” The Octobot King hovered lower.

Was he intending to fight them? They knew how that machine worked by now; they might be able to win, but they wouldn’t get out of the fight unscathed, and Callie didn’t have her roller. Slowly, Marie took a step towards her charger and reached to pick it up.

As soon as she had it in hand, Octavio noticed. “Oy, you shouldn’t do that. Could do some serious damage.”

“Am I supposed to feel bad about shooting you in the face?” Marie glared at him, feeling a little more confident now she had her charger back in her hands. “After everything you’ve done to us!?”

“Your shrimp little weapon could barely leave a dent on me!” Octavio snapped. Marie was pretty sure that wasn’t true. “But this one is important too, right?”

“What?” _What’s that supposed to mean?_ Marie frowned, worrying he might plan to attack Callie – but Agent 4 was still right there next to her, he could probably protect her if needed.

As Octavio’s little ship lowered to a halt, Marie realised he was holding something in the air.

_No._

Some _one_.

“ _Jake_!”

Marie could only stare in dismay as she heard Agent 4’s horrified outburst.

The injured inkling looked like he wasn’t entirely conscious, eyes unfocused and his one arm twitching slightly as he made a feeble attempt to escape Octavio’s hold without success. There was no way he could; Octavio was stronger than him and had a vastly superior number of limbs in his current form.

“Octavio, you let him go _right_ _now_ ,” Agent 4 snarled. Marie had never seen him look so furious, not even when he was brainwashed. His arms were shaking as he clutched the roller. “Or I swear I’ll climb up there and _rip out all three of your hearts_.”

Marie held down the trigger for her charger. Now she absolutely wanted to shoot Octavio in the face.

He noticed the light flicker on and lifted his hostage inkling. “If you shoot me, the squirt dies.” If he was intending to use Jake as a shield, Marie knew she’d be able to avoid hitting the inkling by mistake, but clearly that wasn’t what Octavio meant. One of his tentacle arms curled tighter around Jake’s neck. “Limbs grow back. Heads don’t. You wouldn’t do that to him, right?”

Marie’s stomach lurched as Jake, conscious enough to know that his life was in danger, let out a strangled cry and struggled more. His kicking and scratching did nothing to faze Octavio.

_He’s threatening to rip his head off._ The worst part was, Marie knew he was probably strong enough to do it – and even if she did shoot at him, it’d take more than one hit to end Octavio. He’d be able to kill Jake before she could kill him.

She lowered her weapon slowly to the floor, letting the charge dissipate. “You’re _disgusting_.”

“Just let him go and we won’t fight you,” Callie said, voice shaking as she tried to keep it level. She looked like she might burst into tears at any moment, and Marie didn’t blame her.

What were they supposed to _do_?

“What a noble offer.” Octavio rolled his eyes. “I have a better one! You.” He pointed to Agent 4 with one of his free arms. “This useless runt is important to you, right?” Green eyes stared through the gaps in his shades; first at Callie, then Marie. “Kill them both, you get him back.”

_No!_

“What!?” Agent 4 stared at him in disbelief. His lip curled back in a snarl, showing his sharp incisors. “How could you—I can’t—”

“Well, if you _can’t_ …” The tentacle around Jake’s neck closed tighter, and the younger inkling’s cry of fear was cut off as the air was blocked.

_He’s choking him._

“No, _no, don’t hurt him_!” Agent 4 shouted, instinctively taking a step forward as if he could somehow get to his brother to save him in time.

“I won’t if you do what I ask. Inklings are so useless.” Octavio loosened his grip a little, and Jake gasped for breath. “Caring too much about other useless inklings. Makes you weak. It’s your own fault, really; this would be so much easier for you if you were still controlled by the hypnosignal.” He thoughtfully scratched at one of the turntables; it gave off an awful scraping sound, still broken from the last fight. “If it’s really that difficult, just kill the green one. She’s annoying.”

Marie was holding her charger so tightly she had the slightest feeling the material might crack beneath her fingers. She watched Agent 4, eyes round with fear, as he shot her a horrified look.

He didn’t know what to do. She had no idea if he was actually considering it or not, but if it was her or his brother?

Jake had been willing to sacrifice to much just to get him back; Agent 4 would probably be willing to do whatever it took to save him, too.

“Rollo, don’t, _please_!” Callie had initially backed away from him at the threat of being attacked, but now, even though she was shaking and tears ran down her face, she braced herself in case he _did_ decide to attack her cousin. She was ready and willing to try and fight him off completely unarmed in order to save Marie. And if he dared hurt Callie…

Marie’s hands trembled against her charger.

It wasn’t fair. Everything kept getting worse.

There was nothing any of them could do. Someone was going to die here, and it was ultimately up to her to decide who it would be.

 

* * *

 

Everything had been silent for a while now. The commotion outside the warehouse had ended after Jake had been taken, so the octarians didn’t seem interested in Marina anymore, and they likely had no need for Pearl as anything but an intruder. It worried Marina a little; there must have been something else going on here, some reason that out of all of them they’d wanted Jake, but right now her top priority was making sure Pearl was safe.

Her girlfriend had spent the past five minutes in varying states of consciousness, with the highest level usually causing her to grimace and groan in pain from the pressure on her wound. The bleeding was beginning to stop, finally, thank goodness, but Pearl had lost a lot of blood and she wasn’t looking too well because of it. Marina needed to get her out of here and to a hospital as fast as possible.

Eventually deciding this was as good as she’d be able to do with her limited supplies, Marina managed to tie a bandage around the wound so it wouldn’t get aggravated by Pearl’s slightly torn clothes. “Pearlie, do you think you can stand?”

“Maybe. But do I _want_ to stand?”

“I hope so, because I can’t carry you and use a brella at the same time.” Marina let out a small sigh. She gently cupped Pearl’s cheek. “Please, Pearl? We need to get you out of here and to a hospital.”

“Ugh.” Pearl stared at the ceiling for a few moments longer, her head still resting on the folded-up jacket which now had some bloodstains on it. “Where’d shrimpy go?”

“Somewhere. I don’t know.” She was worried about Jake, but Marina didn’t know if he was in any immediate danger, and Pearl _was_. Perhaps she could try and go back for him when Pearl was safe, preferably with more backup, and maybe her laptop. She hadn’t brought it with her down here, since it was heavy and she didn’t want it to get broken, but it might have been useful for getting out of this place…

Maybe she didn’t need her laptop. She just needed a computer, and there were some of them down here. If they hadn’t been moved in the past two years…

“I know where we need to go; we can get out of here and maybe find out where Jake is.” Marina placed a hand on Pearl’s good shoulder, ready to help her up. “Come on, we just need to do this thing and then we can go home.”

Pearl winced as she tried to move, but managed to sit up with Marina holding her. She held a hand to her injury and grimaced again. “What about our mission?”

“We can do that at the same time.” Marina wasn’t entirely certain of this, but she needed to convince Pearl to move. “Just this one small thing, I promise.”

“A’ight, sure.” Pearl let Marina pull her back to her feet, but she was still very unsteady from losing so much blood. “I better get a wicked cool scar from this. Like, dude, I got a _stab_ _wound_ now! That’s so hardcore.”

Marina gave a half-hearted smile. She still felt so, _so_ bad about what had happened, she’d hurt her girlfriend, but all she could do now was try her best to get her out of here safely.

It was quite the task removing the blockade from the door, and even more so doing it quietly so it wouldn’t draw attention from anyone nearby, but Marina eventually managed to open one of the doors for them to slip out. She still had her scanner on her, thankfully, so she could check for anyone nearby. The signal from the machine she’d been picking up on their way here seemed to have vanished, though.

Trying her best to remember where all the labs had been, Marina slowly guided her injured girlfriend through the base, trying to avoid the paths of the soldiers, just like on the way in here. It was a little awkward, trying to keep an arm around Pearl in case she fell, while also holding the scanner and her brella, but she didn’t dare put her weapon back in her bag in case they were attacked.

Eventually, she managed to locate an unoccupied lab. Marina quickly guided Pearl inside and let her rest on one of the seats, then pushed the heaviest box she could find in front of the inwardly-opening door.

“Wheeeee!” Pearl cheered childishly, her voice a little slurred, as she spun in the desk chair.

“Pearl, please.” Marina reached out a hand to stop it from spinning. “Try not to reopen your wound.”

“Yes, _mother_.” Pearl huffed sulkily. She would have crossed her arms for extra emphasis if it didn’t hurt her to do so. Sinking further into the chair, she held a hand to her shoulder again. “Ow.”

“Just… sit still, and it won’t hurt as much. We’ll be out of here soon.” Hoping she actually would – Pearl was terrible at sitting still – Marina turned her attention to the computers. The screens lined an entire wall of the lab. She hadn’t decided yet what exactly she was looking for in here, but if she could just hack in…

_Yes!_ Okay, she had access. They hadn’t even changed the passwords since she left, which was convenient. Marina rummaged through the files until she found what she was pretty sure was the saved frequency from that machine, and made sure it was deleted from the system. Phew. Well, that was their mission technically sorted. She deleted some other related files too, just so it’d be extra difficult for them to get the machine up and running again. It would probably still be better to actually destroy it, but… perhaps that was a task for another day. Another day, when they could get the Great Zapfish back at the same time, just like Pearl had initially suggested.

“I hope Callie and Marie are doin’ okay,” Pearl said out of nowhere.

“I’m sure they’re fine, Pearl,” Marina replied absently, not sure why she was suddenly bringing up the Squid Sisters, but Pearl didn’t elaborate, so it was probably just an effect of the blood loss. She needed to find a way to get them out of here. Even if it was just… a way to set up a false security alert somewhere that’d send all the soldiers away from them.

She felt bad for the other soldiers here. Marina had noticed something was wrong with them when she arrived, and after the experience she’d just had… she knew they were all being brainwashed by those shades, too. Octavio must have done it to make sure none of them deserted like she did.

Why did she only make everything worse?

_No, no, don’t think like that._ Perhaps she could find some way to shut off whatever was controlling them, too, but she might not be able to do that from a computer. It depended on a lot of factors… it’d take too long for right now, she needed to focus on getting them out of here.

She brought up a security map, trying to find the quickest route back to the way they’d come in and work out where she could place an alert to send the rest of the soldiers away. There was something she hadn’t expected to see, though; a weak signal she hadn’t picked up on her scanner, probably because she was too far away. What was that?

Marina checked the details on the signal, trying to see what it was, and her eyebrows rose. _How…?_ She recognised it, and she wasn’t sure if that filled her with hope or dread.

 

* * *

 

He could barely feel anything since getting hit by that weapon, and when he started to return to his senses, he wished he hadn’t.

_Octavio._

That was who had him, why he was trapped, why he could barely move, why he was even down here in the first place, why he’d _lost his arm_ , why this _whole mess had happened_ …

And now he was _using_ _him_.

Using him to force his brother to kill his own friends.

Jake wanted to go home. He wanted to wake up in his bed and find out this was all a terrible nightmare and nobody really had to die.

He struggled, but Octavio was too strong. The octopus was threatening to rip his head off, and he could feel the reality of that threat. His neck hurt, he could barely breathe. As much as he tried, Jake couldn’t get his body to transform into a squid.

_Don’t do it, please… don’t kill them._

There was no way Rollo would ever forgive himself if he went through with it, and Jake didn’t want his friends to die. He’d rather just let Octavio kill him, and right now it seemed like that was likely to happen.

He was going to die here after all.

At least Rollo didn’t seem to be under the octarians’ control anymore. So it was like he’d done what he came here for… right? Jake had known what the risks would be.

There was no way he could communicate that, though. He couldn’t speak while being half-choked like this, and would Rollo even listen to him in the first place? There was no way his brother would sit back and watch him die.

As much as he struggled, his nails weren’t sharp enough to hurt Octavio, and it only got him held tighter in a death grip. It was like all he could do was give up and hope nobody else got too badly hurt because of him.

_This is my fault._

_This is all my fault._

_It was my stupid idea to go down here alone when I couldn’t even defend myself._

_All I had was one arm and a stupid bomb belt._

His eyes flew wide. The world spun.

_The bomb belt!_

Trying to disguise it as just struggling to get free still, Jake managed to check his waist. He still had the belt. He could _reach it._ Octavio _hadn’t noticed!_

What was he supposed to do with it, though? If he pulled a bomb out, Octavio would surely realise before it had the chance to explode. Either Octavio would then kill him, or he’d just kick the bomb away and Jake would lose his one way of fighting back.

_Bombs explode immediately if they hit something with enough force._

He had an idea.

Maybe it wouldn’t work. It’d probably hurt if it did. But… it was either that, or someone was going to die.

Hoping his body would actually work the way he wanted it to, Jake managed to hit the button on the dispenser.

A splat bomb popped out into his hand.

And, with a shout of anger and fear and _all the willingness he had to make this all stop,_ Jake swung his arm and smashed the bomb as hard as he could into the side of Octavio’s face.

It exploded on impact.

“ _GYAAAAAARGH_!!”

The grip on him vanished.

The world was spinning.

Colours rushed around him.

He hit the ground.

He could barely feel anything, let alone see.

Everything hurt.

He couldn’t tell how much damage he’d done to himself doing that, but at least Octavio didn’t have him anymore.

Maybe things would be okay now. If not for him, then for everyone else.

“Jake!”

His brother’s voice was the last thing he heard before his last few senses faded out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :(


	22. Sacrifices

The panic, the millions of thoughts rushing through her mind as she frantically tried to conjure a way out of this situation, left Marie feeling so dizzy that when something finally _did_ happen her legs almost gave way beneath her from the shock.

Octavio let out an enraged yell, and – _what’s happening something terrible must be happening—_

There was an explosion of blue, and for one dreadful moment, she was certain the octarian leader had gone through with his threat and brutally murdered his hostage. When it finally dawned on her that it was _ink_ , not blood, she realised that Octavio hadn’t ripped Jake’s head off after all – he’d flung him away.

Marie was still frozen from her panic, wishing she could do _anything_ as Jake hit the ground with a painful-sounding _thud_. Things were still processing. What had just happened?

He’d taken one of the bomb dispenser belts down here with him. Marie slowly realised that Jake must have outright smashed a splat bomb against Octavio for it to have exploded before anyone even noticed it activate. How much had he hurt himself doing that?

“Jake!” Agent 4 shouted, panic in his words as he ran for his injured brother.

“GRAAH! You _shrimpy little maggot_!” Octavio yelled. One tentacle arm was pressed to his face, which was dripping with both cyan and dark blue. His ladder shades were broken and hung loosely from his hat. He frantically batted at the controls on his turntable, and one of the Octobot King’s giant gold-plated fists spun into action.

_No._ “Four!” Marie’s voice somehow came out audibly, but it wouldn’t change anything. He wasn’t who Octavio was aiming for, and he wasn’t going to be fast enough to protect Jake, even if his plan was shielding him with his own body.

A powerful shot collided with the giant spinning fist mid-air.

_Yellow ink._

The golden weapon was sent spiralling off-course, scraping a chunk of concrete out of the ground until it slammed into the rail at the end, denting it harshly.

Thank goodness that hadn’t hit anyone.

Where had that shot even come from? It was too powerful for a regular weapon. Marie caught a glimpse of something moving through the air, hovering down towards the arena. Whoever it was, they were held up by the force of an inkjet pack.

A skull bandanna covered the lower half of their face, but as they got closer, Marie noticed the suction cups on the outside of their yellow hair.

_That’s an octoling._

_Why is an octoling helping us!?_

“Marie, _look out_!” Callie’s scream startled her out of her confusion, only for it to immediately fall into horror.

Octavio had fired off the other golden-knuckled weapon, and this one was heading straight towards her.

_Shit._

She didn’t have time to move. Maybe if she still had the instinct to turn into a squid she’d be able to escape, but… she _didn’t_.

All she could do was stand like a shrimp staring at the light of an angler fish, knowing she was about to die.

Then _something_ hit her – and not the force of a giant spinning fist of death.

Marie couldn’t even tell what, and she didn’t currently have a thought process fast enough to think too much into it. The last thing she heard was the sound of a baller activating.

Then the world was spinning.

A _lot_.

Octavio’s weapon connected with the baller she was apparently inside now, and that was enough to send it _flying_ across the arena until it finally skipped along the floor and bumped into the rail at the edge.

The baller gave way, its case eroding quickly as it dumped its contents onto the ground.

Marie groaned. The world still turned violently in front of her and she was suddenly very glad she hadn’t eaten today. Out of all the terrible experiences she’d had since this morning, she’d never expected “experience what clothes in a dryer feel like” to be added to the list. She was tangled up in something now, too; it looked like a cape. Oh, good. Whoever had saved her had terrible fashion, but at least she was alive.

“If you’re not hurt, can you get off me?” They grumbled, squirming a little under her weight as they tried to remove it.

“Oh— sorry.” Marie’s voice was a little shaky still, recovering from the shock, but she still managed to push herself up, grabbing her Agent 2 hat which had been dislodged in all the rolling. The person she’d fallen on swiftly transformed into a squid to get away, almost pulling her over again in the process since that ridiculous cape was caught on her before it disappeared with the transformation. Marie pushed the hat back down over her hair. “Thanks for sa-uhhhh…” She glanced up at the inkling offering a hand to her and immediately her jaw dropped.

Oh.

_Oh._

Hmm. Sudden change of heart. Perhaps capes were a decent fashion statement after all? Yes, definitely. Totally fresh.

“A-Agent 3!?” Marie fought the urge to smack herself upside the head and almost faceplanted the ground again in her amazement. “What are—h-how did—”

“Can you stand?” Agent 3 asked simply, her voice formal, shaking her hand for emphasis on the fact that Marie was still on the ground. She hadn’t changed much, evidently, focused on agent work as ever, but there was a glaringly obvious physical change; the right side of her face was badly scarred, to the point where it looked _burned_. What on earth had managed to do that to her?

“Uh—I—I think so?” Trying her best to shove all the gay feelings aside, Marie finally reached for her hand and let Agent 3 pull her up. _Damn, she’s really strong – stop, stop! Not the time!_ She prayed she didn’t look too flustered right now, although in all honesty, if Agent 3 hadn’t changed much in all this time, she probably wouldn’t notice.

_Where are Callie and the others?_

The octoling was still hovering in the air, firing blasts from the inkjet at Octavio’s aircraft, which he was frantically twisting buttons on the control pad to block with the Octobot King’s barrier. At least, for now, their enemy was distracted, even if Marie didn’t understand why an octoling was helping them.

“That’s Agent 8,” Agent 3 explained, as if reading her mind – _oh cod I really hope she can’t do that –_ when in reality had probably just noticed where she was looking. “She’s on our side. It’s a long story.” She held up her old-style heroshot and flicked her cape, making visible the impressive number of special cans that hung from her belt. “Go get the kid; we’ve got this.”

“Ah—right! Good work, agent.” Marie gave a small mock salute, just about remembering that in their little platoon she was still _technically_ Agent 3’s superior, even if it was nothing official and just a little squad imagined up by her grandfather. “It’s good to have you back.”

The ghost of a smile appeared on Agent 3’s face, and she gave a small nod before dashing towards Octavio, ready to fling herself into the fray.

_Please stop being such a useless lesbian,_ Marie willed herself with an overly violent shake of her head once Agent 3 was no longer watching. She didn’t have time for this. They were still in danger.

There was backup now, though. She didn’t know much about the octoling, but Agent 3 had defeated Octavio almost single-handedly before. That was a pretty big reassurance. Plus, he no longer had a hostage.

Her feelings of relief faded a little when she quickly approached the others, grabbing her dropped charger from the ground on the way. Agent 8 and Agent 3 had shepherded Octavio back to the far side of the arena, so they had space, but as Agent 4 gently pulled his brother into his arms, Jake didn’t look too responsive.

_Oh, cod, no, don’t let him be dead. Hang in there, you annoying little squid._

When she was closer, Marie could actually see the state of him. Blood flecked the ground and dripped from his remaining hand, but miraculously he hadn’t lost it or any fingers in the explosion. The sleeve was torn up and his arm was bleeding, and one of the lenses in his glasses was cracked. Jake let out a quiet groan at being moved, his eyelids flickering as he fought to regain consciousness.

_He’s still alive._ Marie breathed a small sigh of relief.

Callie reached them before she did, and instinctively recoiled a little at first. It must have been the blood; she was already a little queasy around bad injuries, and witnessing the aftermath when Jake had lost his arm probably didn’t help. She steeled herself with a quick shake and dropped down next to them. “Is he okay?”

“He’s _alive_ ,” Agent 4 stated, knowing the two words weren’t synonymous. He cast a glance mixed with anxiety and fury at Octavio in the distance, mentally measuring up if they could get hit from here.

Jake twitched again, trying to open his eyes, but they only rolled. “R… Rollo…?”

Immediately Agent 4’s expression softened, despite knowing Jake couldn’t see him. “It’s me—it’s okay, bro, you’re gonna be alright. I promise.”

“Hurts…” Jake’s voice sounded so weak and pitiful, but that was hardly a surprise given his current state.

“I know, I know.” Agent 4 sighed. He was still shaking a little. “Why the fresh hell did you come down here in the first place, you idiot?”

When Jake only groaned again, Marie tutted, placing the barrel of her charger against the floor. “Wouldn’t we all like to know?”

She half expected Callie to complain or at least frown at her for not showing more sympathy for the poor kid, but instead what she got was almost being pushed to the ground again by a hug. Her charger fell to the floor again – it was getting beat up a lot recently – as she fought to keep her balance. “Callie…?” Her voice came out a little winded; it was one of Callie’s annoyingly tight hugs where Marie was pretty sure some of her organs might be getting crushed.

“You’re _okay_ …!” Callie hiccupped through a sob as she cried onto her cousin’s shoulder. “I thought the octarians were going to k-kill you, an-and then… Octavio…”

Realising how distressed she was, Marie stopped trying to push her away for a moment and patted the back of her shoulders. “Well, they didn’t. I’m fine, Cal. But can the hugs wait until we’re not, like, in danger?”

“Oh! Right.” With a wary glance at the fight in the distance, Callie hopped back, sniffling and quickly rubbing at her eyes.

“You good?”

“I’m good.” Callie gave a small nod, before crouching back down to be closer to eye-level with the others. She gave Jake a worried look; he looked like he was starting to return more to his senses, but that wouldn’t be the nicest experience for him, given his injuries.

Agent 4 gave one last helpless sigh before he looked to Callie. “Can you get him out of here? To someplace safe?”

Callie’s eyes flashed with fear. “What are you gonna do?”

“Teach Octavio a lesson. I’ve beat him before; I can beat him again.”

Still not convinced this was a good idea, Callie opened her mouth to protest, but Marie interrupted her. “Sure, we’ll take him back to the outpost with us.” When Callie shot her a concerned look, she continued. “Agent 3 is here too; she can help.”

“Well…” Callie looked over at the fight again. The octoling – Agent 8? – had run out of power in her inkjet, and now dodged around Octavio’s attacks with an octoshot in hand. Accepting that the two agents who’d defeated Octavio in the past would probably be alright now, Callie turned back to Agent 4 and nodded. “Alright. I think I can carry him.”

“Good. Be careful.” Agent 4 continued to hold Jake up in an elevated position until Callie could get her arms under his shoulders and legs in order to lift him, and then stood up in preparation to join the fight.

As soon as the contact with his brother was gone, Jake tried to reach out for him, his arm falling limply at his side a moment later. “Rollo, wait… don’t go…”

“I’ll be fine, Jakey.” Agent 4 patted Jake’s head. “Stay out of trouble.”

He collected his roller and lifted it over his shoulder as he ran towards Octavio. Marie watched him go without complaint, but she couldn’t help but feel a little worried for him. He was much less prepared for a fight this time. _You better keep that promise to your brother, Agent 4._

Agent 3, not Octavio’s current target, looked over in time to witness Callie lifting the inkling into her arms, almost stumbling as she stood up but managing to catch her balance, and saw Agent 4 heading their way. Realising what was happening, she called out to her friend, pointing towards the rescue mission. “Eight! Go with them. Make sure they get out of here safely.”

The octoling appeared out of a patch of ink she’d swum through to avoid the Octobot King’s punching attack aimed at her, and responded with a quick nod, dolphin jumping through ink splats on the ground to get out of range.

Marie, charger back in her hands again, couldn’t help but instinctively tighten her grip against it as Agent 8 approached. If Agent 3 trusted this octoling… they probably could, too. Probably.

“I do the help to get out,” Agent 8 stated, her words heavily accented and not quite forming a correct sentence, as if she was relatively new to the inkling language.

“Right.” Marie fought to make her hands less tense against the charger. The last thing she wanted was to make an enemy of their new ally. This octoling definitely seemed a lot friendlier than the ones working for Octavio. “Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

The first major obstacle standing in their way was trying to convince Callie to cross the gangplank from the floating ship to the tower. She was terrified of heights and the fact that she was carrying Jake made her even more hesitant, because she wasn’t the only one in danger if she lost her balance. Eventually, after a few minutes of trying to talk her across and Agent 8 offering in her broken tongue to carry the inkling for her – which Callie adamantly refused, so perhaps she didn’t entirely trust this octoling either, or just worried she wouldn’t be strong enough to hold him up – she finally took the plunge, even if she did look as pale as a sheet when she reached the far side.

Marie kept watch as the platform descended, but none of the octoling soldiers seemed to be around currently. Agent 8 kept switching between high alert for their surroundings and gazing curiously at her new company. It was a little unnerving, especially with the skull bandana. Despite being an agent, she wasn’t wearing any agent gear; in fact, with her white norimakis and an octopus-patterned shirt Marie had never seen in the gear stores, she looked more outfitted for turf war than a dangerous mission. Just how did Agent 3 end up befriending this octoling?

Callie placed Jake down while they were on the elevator, propping him up both with her arm and the protective railing surrounding the platform. He still didn’t seem to have full control of his movement, and stared blankly at his injured hand.

“Did they hit you with the taser?” Callie asked. Marie couldn’t help but glance around in surprise at the question; they had _what_ here?

Jake spent a few seconds trying to nod before he gave up and vocalised his answer instead. “Yeah. You ‘kay?”

Callie gave a small smile. “I’m fine now, see? It’ll wear off soon.” She reached for his injured hand, moving it back to his lap so the scratches wouldn’t touch the dirty floor and there’d be less chance of them getting infected. When he winced, she flinched for a moment. “We’ll get back to the outpost soon. You’ll feel better once you’re cleaned up.”

“What about Rollo?” He sounded so lost, and honestly, Marie couldn’t blame him. He’d come so far to save his brother only to be dragged away from him again. She was lucky Callie was safe and with them now, and not fighting the leader of the octarians.

“He’ll be fine. Both him and Faye have defeated Octavio before, I bet they can do it together in no time flat!” Callie sounded pretty sure, but Jake didn’t look convinced.

A few seconds later, he let out a small gasp. “Wait—we have to… get Pearl. An-and Marina.”

“You know they are where?” Agent 8 spoke up for the first time since leaving the others.

“Pearl and Marina are here?” Marie looked between them all with an expression of extreme confusion. _How!?_

“Long story,” Callie said, surprisingly nonchalantly. She turned her attention back to Jake. “Do you know where they are? Is Marina still under Octavio’s control?”

_What on earth did I miss?_ Marie’s baffled expression went ignored.

Jake managed a small shake of his head. “The shades are gone, but… Pearl got hurt real bad. They were in some kind of weapon warehouse…”

“There?” Agent 8 pointed to a building in the distance, slowly disappearing from view as the elevator went down below roof level of the surrounding structures.

“Do you know this place?” Marie asked, hoping she wasn’t overstepping a boundary. Agent 8 _was_ an octoling…

She shuffled her feet a little, showing her first emotion besides curiosity since they’d met a few minutes ago. “Things is fuzzy, but… a small.”

“A… small?”

“I think she means ‘a little’,” Callie translated for her. Agent 8 nodded.

“Oh. Right.” Marie mentally kicked herself for not realising that one. _She’s trying her best, I think._ “Did Agent 3 give you your agent name?”

Agent 8 shook her head this time. “The captain did.”

“You know gramps?” Callie gaped in surprise. “Do you know where he is? Is that how you know Faye? How did—”

“Easy, Callie,” Marie warned as the octoling looked a little overwhelmed by the sudden influx of questions. “We can talk more later, when we’re out of this place.” Although, in all fairness, she was just as curious as her cousin was to find out what had led their grandfather to recruit an _octoling_ of all creatures, given his past attitude towards them.

Once they reached ground level, Agent 8 guided them towards the building she’d pointed out earlier, although given the vague look of uncertainty in her eyes she probably wasn’t any better at navigating this place than they were. Only one pair of octoling soldiers tried to stop them, and before Marie even had time to charge her weapon, Agent 8 had swiftly splatted them both.

Thank goodness she was on their side.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a large stand-alone building. One of the high-up windows was shattered and one of the two large doors at the front was slightly ajar.

“This is where we were,” Jake said, a concerned look on his face. “I blocked the door, though…”

Agent 8, not afraid of a potential ambush, shoved the door further open until it got caught on something on the other side. She peered into the building. “Pearl? Marina?” When there was no response, she disappeared inside.

Marie exchanged an unsure glance with Callie before she followed the octoling, making sure her weapon had full charge just in case.

There were an impressive amount of weapons in this building, that was for sure. Marie and Agent 8 searched the aisles of shelves and tables to check for any hidden enemies – or friends – without turning anything up, but there was one spot on the ground with a _lot_ of blood. Jake had mentioned Pearl was badly injured; hopefully she was somewhere safe for now, because that was an awfully large amount to lose for someone so small.

Callie placed Jake down in the safest spot she could find, against a wall with no sharp objects looming overhead. He looked a lot more alert now, so perhaps whatever the octarians had done to him, as well as the shock of the injury, was starting to wear off.

Content that they were alone in this place, Marie made a quick search for anything first-aid, but as far as she could tell there was nothing here. That was inconvenient. They didn’t even have anything stored here in case of emergencies if someone got hurt by a weapon by accident?

“ _There_ you are!” Callie’s outburst caught her attention. Marie hurried back to see who she was talking to, only to see Callie pull something out of a pile of weapons; her roller. “Oh, sweetheart, I missed you so much!” She hugged her weapon and kissed the frame. Marie rolled her eyes. Typical Callie.

“I won’t intrude on your emotional reunion,” Marie joked, taking a sharp-looking knife from a nearby table and sitting down on Jake’s left side. “Give me your hand.”

“What?” Jake stared at the sharp object with round eyes, drawing his one remaining arm closer to his body and away from her.

Marie sighed and placed the knife on the ground. “I’m not going to cut it off! I just want to check your injuries and make sure you don’t have any pieces of that splat bomb stuck in you.”

“…Oh.” Still hesitantly, he held out his hand. There were scratches from shards of the bomb’s exploding case half way up his lower arm, but they’d stopped bleeding by now, so the main worry was the palm of his hand. Most of it was burned or cut, and the few places that still oozed blood were where pieces of shrapnel stuck out. _Ouch._

Trying to pull one of them out only made Jake whimper and draw his hand back again. Marie let out another exasperated sigh. “Callie, stop making out with your roller and get over here, would you?”

Callie huffed at her, but did as she asked, gently setting her no-longer-lost weapon nearby. “What’s up?”

“Distract the crybaby so I can remove the broken glass from his hand.”

“I’m not crying,” Jake protested sulkily. “It just hurts, that’s all.”

“Sometimes things hurt in life,” Marie stated plainly as she grabbed his wrist more firmly this time. He winced as that made contact with a bunch of the recently-closed wounds. “The less you fight the quicker this is over with.”

While Marie removed the shards from Jake’s hand, Callie asked him about what had happened since they got separated – apparently Callie had found him earlier that day, or something, Marie really had missed a whole lot – and Marie learned about why Off the Hook were down here, that Marina had previously been one of Octavio’s soldiers and a pair of hypnoshades had brought her back under his control, that _all_ of the soldiers were likely brainwashed, that Pearl had to fight Marina to get the shades off and been stabbed in the process… Marie felt bad that the others had been dragged into their mess.

Once she was done, and Jake let out a relieved sigh with the knowledge he didn’t need anything else pulled out of his hand, Marie picked up the knife again. “Hopefully you’re more attached to your hand than this sweater. It’s already torn up anyway.” She reached over to his empty right sleeve, using the knife to cut through the material just above the knot he’d managed to tie in it.

Untying the knot and turning the tube of material inside out so it was more likely to be clean, she wrapped it around his injured hand like a bandage. “That’ll do until we can get you some proper first aid.”

“Ooh, crafty!” Callie chirped.

Jake experimentally flexed his fingers, wincing in the process, but it was a good sign that he could still move all of them. He inspected the makeshift bandage for a few more seconds before giving her a small smile. “Thanks, Marie.”

“You’re welcome. Think yourself lucky I don’t have the energy to lecture you on how incredibly _stupid_ it was for you to go down into the octarians base, _alone_ , when you couldn’t even use a weapon.”

Marie thought her glare was a little softer than usual, but Jake still flinched away from her. “I’m sorry…”

She sighed again. He’d probably realised that ages ago without her having to spell it out for him. Reaching over to place the knife on a nearby table, she managed the smallest of smiles, even if it was more like one of her snarky grins. “I _guess_ it was pretty brave of you to attack Octavio like that. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you didn’t, so… thanks, kid.” She tousled his hair; at least that brought back a genuine smile from him, if nothing else.

“Aww, look at you, Marie,” Callie giggled. “Actually being nice to him, not threatening murder, or whatever you said you were gonna do earlier…”

Marie rolled her eyes. “Don’t tempt me.” That only drew another laugh out of her cousin.

Their light-hearted conversation was interrupted by a strange noise; something that sounded like a cross between an alarm and a radio dial. Agent 8, who had taken up guarding the door while the others were busy, blinked in surprise and pulled a clunky old-fashioned-looking device out of her pocket. A red light was flashing on it, and she tilted her head in confusion for a moment before pressing a button.

Immediately a holographic screen popped up in front of her. Callie let out a quiet “whoa” in the background.

Marie frowned, standing up and approaching cautiously. “What’s going on?”

Agent 8 stared at the holographic screen for a few moments before pointing to something on it; a blinking icon on what looked like a map. “Marina!”

 

* * *

 

It was impossible for Callie to carry an inkling and her weapon at the same time, but Jake insisted he could walk from here, so she reluctantly allowed him to. Even so, she kept an arm protectively around or hovering near him at all times, making sure he didn’t get separated from their little group and that she could catch him if he tripped over anything, because there was a lot of random garbage lying around on the floor, and in his current state, falling would probably hurt quite a lot.

She was so glad he was finally safe, and that she was finally reunited with Marie, and that they were currently on their way to find their other friends to make sure they were okay too, and soon they’d all be out of here and back to their regular lives, with no potential fighting or death at every turn.

Eight led them through the city more assuredly this time, occasionally pausing to view the holographic map on the strange device she had. Callie didn’t really know what to think of this octoling, but she seemed friendly, and Faye and the captain trusted her, so she must be good.

They reached the mark on the map without resistance, and she could only assume Octavio was too busy defending himself to control the octoling soldiers for now. Eight gave the door an experimental push, and when it didn’t open, decided to throw her entire body against it instead. That dislodged whatever was pressed up against the other side; a box that toppled and spilled its contents onto the floor, from the sound it made.

There was a shout of fear from inside the room as Marina popped open her brella’s shield to protect Pearl, who was still spinning in lazy circles on a desk chair as if she wasn’t entirely aware of what was happening. When Marina saw the intruder, she lowered her weapon. “Eight!”

The young octoling ran to her and flung herself into her arms, giggling like a child with their mother.

Marina gave her a tight hug before pushing her back, holding her at arm’s length. “What on earth are you doing down here? Where’s—” She looked up as Marie made her way into the room, trying to avoid the mess on the floor, and her eyes flew wide in amazement. “Oh my goodness Pearl wasn’t spouting nonsense. How did—h-how did you end up in Octavio’s base?”

“It’s… a long story,” Marie offered as an unhelpful explanation. “Let’s just say he’s not too fond of us.”

Pearl, still in the slowly-spinning chair, looked incredibly pale. Her dusty black hoodie was torn at the shoulder, and it took a moment for Callie to realise that the dark fabric was soaked with blood, although the small section of bandage visible underneath didn’t look soaked through, so the injury must have stopped bleeding. That was good. Pearl stared blankly at Eight for a moment before the recognition set in. “Eyy, it’s our girl! There she— _oww_ , ow.” She tried to sit forward and winced, pressing a hand to her shoulder.

“Pearlie, don’t try to move,” Marina warned quickly, freeing Eight and placing a hand on Pearl’s non-injured shoulder, encouraging her to sit back.

“She needs proper medical attention,” Marie observed. Her gaze flickered between Off the Hook and the wall of screens, some of which danced with various numbers and other symbols.

“I know,” Marina sighed. “I just… I don’t know how to get her out of here safely. Nobody else knew we were down here.”

Callie guided Jake over to a sturdy-looking table at the side of the room so he could sit down, and then turned her attention to the others. “Could we get a message to Sheldon somehow? He might be able to bring the flying truck down here.”

“Whoa,” Pearl droned. “Flying truck?”

“How’s he supposed to get that thing through the tiny gap in the ceiling?” Marie pointed out, ignoring Pearl.

“I should be able to open the doors wider from here,” Marina said, some hope returning to her eyes. “And with the boosted signal from the radio tower I can probably get a message to him. He seemed to know what was going on.”

“Great. Sheldon’s spilling our secrets,” Marie muttered under her breath.

Marina turned to the other octoling. “Did you come all the way down here by yourself?”

Eight shook her head. “Three.”

“She’s here too?” Marina frowned. “Where? Why did you split up?”

“She fight… Octavio,” Eight shrank a little under Marina’s intense gaze, as if she thought she’d done something wrong. “She told me leave…”

“Ro—uh— Agent 4 is helping her,” Callie added.

“Four?” Pearl scuffed the ground with her shoe, only listening to half of their conversation. “Ain’t that fishbowl guy?”

“Agent 3 is still recovering from her injuries; the captain put her out of commission from agent work weeks ago!” Marina nervously wrung her hands.

“Injuries?” Callie echoed. She exchanged a worried glance with Marie. Both of them had trusted in Faye’s abilities, but that was before they knew this. And Rollo had been locked in a glass bowl for the past week…

“We should go back.” Marie didn’t sound too thrilled by her own idea – heck, she looked terrified of facing Octavio again, but she knew Faye and Rollo might be in danger if they left them to fight the octarian leader alone. “They might need our help.”

_And if they don’t, at least everything will be over when we get there._ “Yeah. You’re right.” Callie nodded.

A quiet sound from behind them caught her attention; Jake climbing up from the table he was sat on. Callie knew what he was thinking, and she knew it was an absolutely terrible and needless idea.

“No. No, no, no.” She left her roller propped against the wall as she quickly went to place her hands on his shoulders, holding him in place. “I know you want to help your brother, but you’re in no state to fight Octavio. You need to stay here.”

“But I…” The anguish was clear in his eyes; he didn’t want to join the battle, he just wanted to know his brother was okay. He’d been fighting for so long just to get him back, only for him to disappear into a dangerous fight a moment later.

“No buts.” Callie ignored the snort of laughter from delirious Pearl in the background and kept her focus on Jake. _Please,_ please _listen to us this time._ “We’ll make sure he gets out of here safe – I’ll promise, as long as you promise to stay with the others.”

Jake hesitated for a moment, eyes flickering back and forth as he struggled to focus on her through his broken glasses. “… Okay. I will.”

“Promise?”

He gave a small nod. “Promise.”

Callie breathed a small sigh of relief. “Good.” She gently pulled him into a hug; he made a small motion in an attempt to return it, but decided against that when it hurt his injured arm. “See you soon, buddy.”

Over with the others, Marie spoke quietly to Marina; “keep an eye on him, just in case.”

And so, with some well-wishes from Marina and an order for Eight to stay here and guard the others, the two cousins headed back out into enemy territory. It was still eerily silent, and though they didn’t entirely know how to get back, the massive spire was an obvious landmark. The ship still hovered ominously above it; Callie didn’t know if the fact it was still there and silent was a good or bad sign.

She couldn’t hear any enemies nearby, and she had her weapon now if they did decide to show up – and she wouldn’t use bombs on any flimsy-looking bridges this time – so she determined it safe to talk for now. “Sooo,” she started, her voice making Marie jump, as if she’d been super focused on listening out for the smallest sound. “When we’re going down here to look for Jake, it’s too dangerous and a terrible idea, but if it’s _Faye_ …” She gave her cousin a teasing look, raising her eyebrows.

Marie scoffed at her. “You know this isn’t the same. We would’ve had to search this whole place for Jake by ourselves, but we know exactly where we’re going and we know we’re not alone down here now – and besides, Agent 4 is there too.”

“Riiiiight.” Callie grinned, finding it amusing how she’d only added him in as an afterthought. Poking fun at Marie over her crush was just too entertaining. “I bet she totally swept you off your feet when she saved you; she’s like your knight in shining armour, with a _cape_ and everything.”

“Shut up, Callie.” Marie rolled her eyes. “If you dare say a _word_ to her—”

“Ooh, getting possessive now?” Callie interrupted before she could finish her sentence with an ‘about this’. “Ah, young love.”

Marie just groaned, knowing she wasn’t going to leave it, and Callie only giggled more at her irritation. Now that they were finally reunited again, she was absolutely determined to make the short walk back to the tower as annoying for Marie as possible.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to almost the end of the story where characters who've been in the tags since the beginning finally show up!!


	23. Put to an End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter: blood / body horror??? and the mildest of mild emeto warning for like 1 sentence

None of Faye’s days seem to be the greatest as of late. A mission out to the cove with the captain to check out some suspicious octarian activity had somehow led to them being zapped into a strange place underground, where she’d almost starved in a few weeks of being lost and alone until the weird phone-like device she’d stolen from an office room, along with the most edible food she could find, had picked up a distress signal, and she’d only just made it in time to stop the captain and his new agent from being blended into mush.

Then she’d been attacked by… a phone… while unconscious, and it had attached some weird goo to her face that went inside her damn brain, and if she thought about it too much she could still imagine the awful _feel of it being there_ even though she hadn’t even been aware of her actions at the time. A month later her face still stung occasionally and not a day had passed since where she hadn’t had a headache at some point, often coupled with nausea or dizziness.

She’d felt decent this morning, waking up in her apparent new home of the shack at Octo Valley, because she didn’t dare return to her mother’s house in this state and Eight had nowhere to live, so the captain had put her on babysitting duty. Faye saw through him easily; Eight may have been new to inkling culture, but she was a talented kid and could handle herself in matches, and could already make a half-decent meal even if she didn’t dare touch a blender, so the reality was that the captain had left her in charge of looking after their newest agent so that Eight could look after _her_ while she recovered from the aftermath of that stupid phone.

She didn’t like it, but at least Eight was more vigilant than she was as of late, shaking her awake that morning to show her the messages Pearl sent in the chat room. Granted, Faye didn’t know Off the Hook that well, and had only met them after waking up with the right side of her face and head burning and barely conscious enough for a conversation, but they didn’t really strike her as the sort of people who would be able to take on an entire octarian army alone, and Eight seemed to feel that way too.

So they’d gone on their own mission into the octarians’ base, blown up a machine that looked like it might be the “mind control” one Pearl had mentioned, and after some searching around to try and find out what had become of Pearl and Marina, noticed an elevator rising up to a ship that Faye recognised as Octavio’s – and though her eyesight had taken a bit of a knock from that goo, she was pretty sure one of the people on it looked like Agent 2.

Faye didn’t feel quite so okay anymore, and perhaps part of that was due to being tossed around inside a baller – but what was she supposed to do, let Marie get killed? – and she would much, _much_ rather be back at the cabin taking a nap than facing Octavio again. She was the most qualified squid for the job, though – or at least, she thought she was.

“Who are you again?” She asked the inkling fighting on her side, dodging out the way of a bomb Octavio had thrown. His machine had some new tricks, but they weren’t very impressive. She was pretty sure Octavio had been throwing insults at the two of them this whole time, and it was pissing him off to no end that his petty words went ignored.

“Uh—Agent 4?” The guy responded with a half-hearted shrug. So, someone around here had recruited a new agent in her absence. She must have missed a lot. He was pretty silly-looking, though. The captain had chortled at her cape when he first saw it; he’d probably have a field day with this guy and his edgy eye-fringe, and if not, well, life was just unfair sometimes.

Understandably, he wasn’t revealing his real name in front of their greatest enemy, though. “Alright. I’m Three.”

“Really? You look older.” He responded in a painfully deadpan voice, like it was a natural response.

Faye had the decency to not run over there and slap him at his terrible joke, but at least he had to quickly dodge one of the giant gold-plated fists as it slammed into the ground where he’d just been standing. Karma. “If all you’re here for is comic relief, you might as well leave. Octavio ain’t an enemy to mess around with.”

“Yes! FEAR ME!” Octavio yelled.

She looked directly at him for the first time since she’d got here. Man, that kid had done a number on him already, judging by the blood running down his face, even if it was just surface damage. “ _You_ can shut up.” She wasn’t scared of him – just what he might be able to do to others.

“Thanks for the advice, but I’ve fought him before and won too,” Agent 4 stated. He looked serious enough, so at least he wasn’t just joking around here. “And I kinda have personal reasons for wanting to beat the snot out of him again.”

“If you won, why are we fighting him _now_?”

“Let’s just say the New Squidbeak Splatoon really needs a more secure prison than large goldfish bowls. They’re… really easy to break out of.”

“Sounds like I missed a lot.” Faye regretted not being around for whatever had happened, mostly because then she wouldn’t have been brainwashed by a damn phone and still suffering the consequences of it. Her head was pounding now, and the only thing keeping her alert enough to avoid the obstacles thrown her way was her natural instinct to stay alive. She really wanted to end this fight as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, this upgraded Octobot King could shoot out its fist-like weapons in a spinning motion, deflecting the ink and making them impossible to shoot back at him like Faye had done in their previous fight; Eight’s inkjet had only slightly redirected one of them due to the sheer force of the weapon. Perhaps Octavio had actually learnt something from their last encounter, and that was annoying.

She couldn’t shoot him from this distance, and Agent 4 had a roller – one made for turf wars, she was suspecting; had this guy really managed to beat Octavio before? Some kind of miracle must have happened there – so, time for a new plan before they both wore themselves out. Faye turned to squid form and hopped through the gradually lessening patches of yellow ink to put some space between her and that craft, glad that Agent 4 had switched to her ink colour because changing hers felt like so much more effort now than it used to.

Once she was far enough away that she deemed it safe to do so, she popped open one of the cans on her belt, bringing out a pair of tenta missile cannons. It only took a heartbeat to lock them onto Octavio, but the thundering noise as the ten missiles fired made the pounding in her head worse.

Octavio saw his incoming doom and hurriedly put the ship’s focus on defence, blocking the missiles with its shield. Okay, that wasn’t working. New plan; something that could go through shields.

_Stingray time._ This one was loud, too, but at least the noise wasn’t right in her ears. Octavio yelled as the stingray’s beam cut through the barrier and scorched him, used a booster on the back of the Octobot King to veer his craft violently to one side, and fired off one of the spinning fists towards her.

Aha! So he’d finally realised she was a threat. _Fine, let’s see how your weapons stand up to this._ With the stingray still out as she tried to guide it back towards him one-handed, knowing it wouldn’t matter if she caught Agent 4 by accident while his ink was the same colour, she pulled out another special; ink armour.

It may have slipped her mind that the modern specials were slightly different to the old ones, but the force of a giant spinning metal weapon was definitely enough for her to remember.

The ink armour protected her from the brunt of the force, thank goodness; she definitely would have died right there if she didn’t have it. It couldn’t block it out completely though, and as the armour shattered everything caught up and she was smashed backwards, tumbling against and hitting the ground a few times before she finally rolled to a halt.

_Right… ink armour… not bubbler…_ Well, if she’d felt bad before, that was _nothing_ compared to now. As Faye struggled to push herself up she ended up coughing, her entire body shuddering as it tried to bring up contents she didn’t have. _Just stop already, I need to get up!_

“Just DIE ALREADY!” Octavio screamed, slamming the buttons on his control pad with more force than necessary as both of the machine’s fists blasted out towards her.

They weren’t spinning this time. Where was her heroshot?

Not in her hand. Of course. Why would it be? Things could never be easy. It was still spinning in a slow circle a few metres away where it had skidded to when she was hit. The giant metal weapons were closing in on her _fast_. Maybe she’d survive this if she popped another ink armour.

A bomb exploded nearby; a curling bomb.

Then Agent 4 jumped out from its path. It took a second for her to realise the ink quickly engulfing his body wasn’t the effect of her ink armour.

Faye was shoved back to the ground again by the hurricane-like draft of the splashdown. It buffeted her hair and cape and the ink temporarily blinded her to her surroundings.

The next thing she heard was Octavio shout as one of the golden fists slammed into the Octobot King, dislodging a few broken scraps of metal from its frame. The other weapon had rebounded at a different angle, tearing up another chunk of the arena floor.

Agent 4 stumbled a little as he stood up; he was breathing heavily, exhausted. Maybe neither of them were in the best shape to be doing this fight.

Faye was also irrationally angry that he’d had to save her, both at herself and him for risking his own safety, so she wasn’t going to mention it. He could feel proud of himself if he wanted to. She probably looked pathetically shaky as she finally managed to push herself up.

Octavio growled, driving his ship forward to he could get back in easy range to attack them. After a second, he glanced to the side – then quickly smacked another switch that sent the craft veering to the right just as a line of charger fire splattered the ground.

 

* * *

 

“Okay, I _would_ have hit him if he hadn’t done that.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Callie gave a patronisingly wise nod, patting Marie’s shoulder and earning a deadpan glare for her efforts.

Perhaps they’d arrived back just in time; the agents wouldn’t have lasted much longer in this fight, from the looks of them now. Callie didn’t know what they could do either, except try and get the others out of here with them, but with Octavio still here, that’d be difficult.

“Can you distract him?” She asked quietly. “I have a plan.”

“The last time you had a _plan_ we ended up down here,” Marie muttered. Surprisingly, she didn’t protest beyond that as she added equally as quiet, “he seemed pretty pissed at me earlier; that shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Octavio, unable to hear their exchange from so far away, had already turned his attention to them. “You return! That’s convenient of you. You must _want_ to die.”

“If I said you were entirely wrong, I’d be lying,” Marie huffed, aiming her charger again. “Not today though, thanks.”

This time the shot was blocked by a shield; predictable, but Octavio did have to press a button to bring it up. It vanished when he sent a gold fist spiralling towards them.

“Dodge!” Callie yelled, but fortunately Marie had more than enough warning to avoid it this time as it slammed into the rail behind them.

“Not good enough, old man!” Marie shouted back, not bothering to shoot this time because she was catching on too. “Even my grandfather could aim better!”

“Do NOT MENTION CUTTLEFISH TO ME!”

With a flick of her roller, and content that Marie had Octavio sufficiently angry and distracted, Callie managed to sneak away, swimming towards the others. There wasn’t much she’d be able to do with such a short-range weapon, and if she got close enough to throw a bomb then Octavio would surely hear it activate, but she did have another idea, even if it sounded like a mix of cool and terrifying in her head.

“Why did you come back!?” Rollo hissed, trying not to draw attention to them. “Where’s Jake?”

Callie made an exasperated one-handed motion towards them; Faye didn’t meet her gaze, just held a hand to her side as if it hurt. “He’s on his way to safety with the others; we thought you might need help. Now, come on.” She tugged at his sleeve, trying not to grimace because he had just been fighting a powerful enemy and it _was_ a little sweaty.

“… Why?” He asked again, but warily followed anyway even though she was leading him back towards Octavio.

“I need you to fling me.”

Rollo looked… incredibly lost. He stared at her as if she’d grown another head. “Pardon?”

“With your roller! Use it to throw me up there!” She pointed at the Octobot King, and when her order was met with stunned silence and confusion, she sighed. “I know what I’m doing, just _do it_!” Without waiting for a response, she shrunk into a yellow squid form, her roller disappearing along with her inkling body. That was the first time she’d done this properly since being forced into this form earlier, and it felt a little odd because of that, but at least it held.

“Well… alright, I hope you actually do.” Rollo held his weapon close to the ground to she could hop on.

Callie held on tight as he hoisted it up over his shoulder and ran forward. She braced herself. This was either going to be incredibly fun, or the most terrifying thing she’d ever done in her life.

Rollo swung the roller with all the strength he could muster, and she was catapulted into the air.

She was definitely leaning towards terrifying. It took every ounce of her will to not make any noise that would alert Octavio she was incoming, because if he put up that barrier and she smacked into it, it’d probably _hurt_.

Fortunately, the arc Rollo had thrown her in was spot-on. Octavio was still mid-punch – missed again, fortunately, Marie was still okay – when she transformed back and landed heavily on the top platform, her roller denting the metal under her as it connected with the floor.

“GYAH! WHAT!?”

As soon as she caught sight of the view from up here, Callie was brought back to that day, of dancing and singing and fighting and trying to _kill_ and watching as a deadly weapon closed in on her cousin – but that wasn’t now. She was fully in control of her actions now, and she could _do_ _something_ about all this.

“Honey, I’m ho-ooome!” Callie chimed, a grin returning to her face as she used her full strength to smash her roller into the side of the flying machine.

All the lights in the top platform flickered out as the collection she’d hit shattered on impact. The ground shuddered beneath her. Octavio couldn’t hit her with any of his weapons here, not without destroying his aircraft in the process.

So, that left her free to destroy it for him! Excellent. What else could she smash up?

“Callie, watch out!” _Uh oh._ She heard Marie’s cry, but what was she watching out for exactly?

“You ANNOYING SACK OF SHRIMP GUTS!” Oh. Octavio was climbing up here. His tentacle arms were strong enough for him to haul himself up onto the higher platform.

It wasn’t like he was much of a threat, though. He didn’t even have a weapon! “That’s me, I guess!” Callie swung her roller at him, prepared to smack him right out of this machine. He _definitely_ wasn’t dangerous without it.

Before she could hit him, he reached out a limb – it seemed to extend, and grabbed the frame of her roller, stopping the motion just like that.

_What!?_ Callie’s eyes flew wide with shock, and before she had time to process what was happening, the weapon was yanked out of her grip and she was flung to the ground.

“ _Callie_!” Marie’s terrified shout rang in her ears.

She scrambled to get away as the shape in front of her warped and grew, but something grabbed her shoulder and shoved her back against the floor.

A _hand_. A _really really big hand._

_Oh cod._

Callie had always sort of assumed that Octavio had some kind of octoling form. It hadn’t occurred to her that the size of his octopus form compared to the other octolings would actually translate into that.

He was _huge_ , at least three times the height of a regular inkling, barely even fitting in the little podium area. His octoling form shuddered and writhed as it tried to hold itself together and blood ran down his face from the injury he’d reopened by transforming.

Octavio snarled, showing blackened yellow teeth on his ancient, almost skeletal-looking face. “DIE!!”

He raised her roller into the air.

He was going to kill her with her own weapon.

“ _No_!” She screamed, flailing to try and escape his hold.

It wasn’t working it _wasn’t working she was going to die_.

**_CRASH_**!

A fully-loaded charger sound split through the air.

Octavio let out the most horrific scream yet.

Blood splattered the floor.

_Oh cod oh cod oh cod oh cod._

Her roller slammed heavily against the floor of the platform, leaving another wicked dent in it before it slipped over the edge and fell to the arena below.

Octavio’s form convulsed as he reverted back.

_Get out of here get out of here **get out of here!!**_

Free at last, Callie finally scrambled away, throwing herself off the side of the craft, turning to a squid and praying she landed in friendly ink. She did.

Another charger fire went off as Marie painted her an escape route. Callie snatched her roller from the ground and darted away through it in squid form.

Once she reached her cousin, she transformed back. Her roller fell from her grip and slid to the ground. Her legs gave way beneath her as she clung to Marie’s arm and sobbed.

 

* * *

 

Marie did not consider herself a violent person, but if she didn’t currently have Callie clinging to her in such a way that aiming a charger would be impossible, she would have absolutely have taken another shot at Octavio.

And she felt bad about it, too – not because of what she’d done to _him_ , but because she was pretty sure witnessing it was the reason why Callie was shaking and sobbing against her.

_I’m so sorry, Cal, but he was going to kill you…_

“Doesn’t feel too great, does it?” Agent 4 spat at their enemy. Agent 3 stood near Marie and Callie, a hand hovering over one of the specials on her belt in case Octavio decided to attack them again.

The octarian leader growled under his breath, one tentacle arm pressed to the massive gaping wound where one of his others had been as blood continued to trickle from it. He’d made a grave error by transforming like that; in octopus form, a shot from a charger wouldn’t have been able to rip one of his limbs clean off.

It was ironic, really; that was exactly what had happened to Jake because of him.

“F… FINE!” Octavio snarled eventually, great pain in his voice. He’d severed his own limbs to power the octoweapons before, but that was done in a much safer way. “Nobody wins today.”

He pressed another button on the Octobot King, and the top of the UFO they were in opened up, granting the tiniest amount of extra light and a view of the blank screens above. Octavio’s personal aircraft boosted further up, and the latch at the bottom opened as he did so, letting the Great Zapfish free. All the lights on the Octobot King went out, but it still had enough power to lift itself out of the ship.

_He’s running away and freeing the Great Zapfish so we have less incentive to chase after him._ Marie gave a small sigh of relief. It was disappointing that Octavio was going to have to go free – for now – but at least that meant this was finally all over. The zapfish let out a happy crone of freedom as it slithered through the air and out the top of the ship.

“He’s gone,” Marie stated, managing to get her arm free from Callie’s iron grip and place a hand on her shoulders instead. “You’re okay.”

Callie was still hyperventilating, clinging to Marie’s jacket instead when her first source of comfort vanished. She calmed a little, though, managing to take a few deep breaths as Marie gently rubbed her back. Her clothes were smeared with some of Octavio’s blood; no wonder this had thrown her into a panic, after she’d witnessed the same thing happen to Jake before. At least it had been an enemy this time…

“We should get out of here,” Agent 4 stated. He was probably anxious to make sure his brother had made it out safely.

“Right.” Marie patted Callie’s head. “Come on. We’re going home.”

That managed to get through to her, thankfully. Callie’s eyes still held a distant look as she gave a small nod. “Y-yeah…”

Marie helped her up as she climbed shakily back to her feet. Agent 4, stronger than Marie and actually able to lift it, picked up Callie’s roller from the ground and handed it to her. Callie gave the both of them a grateful smile, almost dropping the roller again as she took on its weight herself as if she’d forgotten briefly how heavy it was. She was shaken up, but at least Octavio hadn’t hurt her. No doubt Marie could guess what her nightmares would be for the next few weeks.

The ground shuddered. The lights flickered out.

“What’s—” Marie was cut off by a loud groaning of metal.

The arena was beginning to tilt underneath them.

_Oh no. No, no, no…_

“He turned off the power in the ship!” Agent 4 cried out, stating what all of them had just realised.

_He’s still trying to kill us. This is a last-ditch effort._

“We have to go, _now_!” Agent 3 ran for the centre of the arena, throwing something to the ground, and a moment later a launchpad formed. Thank goodness she’d had the foresight to bring something like that with her. Agent 3 motioned frantically towards them. “Hurry!” A moment later, she dropped into squid form and used the launchpad to blast out through the gap in the ceiling and onto the roof.

“You heard her.” Marie grabbed Callie’s arm and pulled her forward – she nearly stumbled and fell but managed to regain her balance on shaking legs.

She let Callie go first, hoping she’d make it onto the roof of the ship okay. Agent 4 was waiting for her to go next, so she didn’t waste any time, as horrifying as superjumping was to her these days. Fortunately the power of the launchpad was enough to fling her poor squid form out through the gap, and she landed on the metal less gracefully than she’d hoped, having to quickly grab her charger before it could roll away off the side.

The ship’s engines whined to a halt as it slowly began to fall out of the air, its shape causing it to tilt and slide to one side. They were going to have to get down from this thing somehow, and before it hit the ground, because there was a large chance it would explode when it did.

Marie really hoped the others had got out of here – and that Octavio at least had the heart in him to scramble his nearby brainwashed soldiers who might be near where this thing fell.

As soon as Agent 4 was up on the roof with them, Agent 3 pointed down the slope. “We have to get to the tower, quickly!” The very top of it was already visible just above the edge of the ship; they were moving away from it.

And so, they ran. Agent 3 was fast and took the lead, quickly followed by Agent 4. It was Marie’s turn to be pulled along this time as Callie grabbed her wrist, making absolutely certain she didn’t get left behind.

“Roller boy, curling bomb!” Agent 3 commanded.

“ _Roller_ _boy_!?” Apparently Agent 4 was not too fond of this nickname, but did as she said, letting the bomb ride along the ground and ink the metal in front of them before falling off the edge and exploding somewhere down in the air below.

Agent 3, fearless as ever, dove into the slowly-evaporating ink trail and used it to jump across the gap to the radio tower, narrowly avoiding one of its poles and landing safely on a platform that stretched between them. Agent 4 was next, having to make a fractionally larger jump as the ship steadily fell and widened the gap.

As soon as Marie saw how wide it was, her legs seemed to stop automatically.

_That’s too far. It’s too far, I can’t make that!_

Callie halted when she lost her grip on Marie’s arm, looking at her with fear in her eyes. “Come on, we have to go!”

“I—I-I can’t—”

“You _can_!” Callie insisted. “You _have_ _to_!” Knowing the gap was only getting wider, and that she needed to prove it was possible, she dived into squid form and swam to the edge, springing from it. A frightened wail escaped her at the sight of the drop below, but Agent 4 reached out to catch her squid form, and she had safely crossed.

That just left Marie. All alone out here, faced with a gap she couldn’t jump in inkling form.

She couldn’t do it.

She couldn’t…

Callie, accidentally smacking Agent 4 with a limb as she struggled out of his arms, landed on the platform as an inkling, letting her roller topple onto its side again as she clung to one of the poles and reached out towards the ship. “ _Marie_!”

_I can’t do it!_ She couldn’t hold her squid form well enough for this! There was no way she’d survive if she didn’t make that jump.

There was no way she’d survive if she didn’t try, either.

_Ack…_

She had to try. She was going to try.

The first thing she did was fling her charger as hard as she could, because holding squid form would be easier without absorbing a weapon into it as well. She didn’t see if it landed on the platform or not, just heard the now-annoyingly-familiar sound of it clattering against something – hopefully the platform – before she dissolved into yellow ink.

_Swim, swim, swim as fast as you can! And in a straight line!_

The ink felt like a massive force pushing her both forwards and back at the same time. She could barely see, and had to try and use every remaining piece of her senses to guess where the edge of the ship was so she could jump before she fell.

_Now!_

It took every bit of effort she had in her to launch herself from the ink. She couldn’t tell if it had been enough.

She couldn’t hold the form together any longer. Not after all that.

Her body burst back into inkling form of its own accord, and Marie screamed as she felt herself falling.

Then she was cut off abruptly as a painful force on her arm yanked her to a halt. _Oww ow ow…_

All three of her hearts thundered in her chest. Marie dared open her eyes, which she’d squeezed shut impulsively, and _oh cod do not look down whatever you do, do_ not _look down!_

“Marie!”

Her entire body shivering violently from shock and fear, she managed to look up at the sound of her name. Callie had managed to grab her arm and was struggling to pull her up; Agent 4 was reaching down over the edge of the platform, hand outstretched, and it took Marie a moment to realise he wanted her to grab it.

_Oh._ Terror powering her movements, she managed to reach up the arm that didn’t currently feel like it was being pulled off her body. Agent 4 was able to stretch a little further and grab her hand, and together he and Callie managed to pull Marie up onto the platform.

She didn’t even try to get up. She was still shaking too much and she had the feeling her legs would turn to jelly if she even tried. All Marie ended up doing was lying there, on her side, shuddering. “Ohhh my cod…”

_I almost died. I actually made the jump somehow. Holy shrimp on a stick._

_Okay, technically I didn’t make the jump, but… close enough._

_We made it._

She didn’t even try to move or resist as Callie pulled her up into a sitting hug. Marie would let her for now; she knew she’d be terrified if their roles were swapped there, even more terrified than she just had been, if that were somehow possible. And, quite honestly, after everything she’d been through that day, it was a big comfort to know that Callie was still here and safe.

“W-we still…” Her voice came out shaky and half-muffled by Callie’s cardigan – Marie was still in too much shock to care about the fact that there was Octavio’s blood on it and just hoped none of it was touching her face – and she had to take a moment to try again. “We still have to get down from here, don’t we.”

“Yeah.” Agent 4 let out a shaky sigh. It wasn’t until he let go that Marie realised he was still holding her hand.

Part of her was kind of disappointed that Agent 3 hadn’t participated in that rescue. Were they out of danger enough for her to have her gay thoughts back yet?

The squid in question, at the very least, had picked up her charger – so that had made it over here after all, thank goodness, she _was_ pretty attached to that thing – but Agent 3 wasn’t paying attention to them anymore, squinting into the distance. “Am I going crazy, or is that a splatfest truck flying towards us?”

“Sheldon!” Callie cheered, her outburst shaking Marie a little.

Marie never thought she’d be so glad to hear that crab’s name in her life.

 

* * *

 

There wasn’t room to park the truck on the small platform they were standing on, so they had to rely on Sheldon’s truck-flying skills – something he didn’t have a huge amount of experience in – to hold the thing steady so they could get into the back. Thankfully Agent 8 and Marina were there to help them across the gap between the platform and the truck, because Marie really didn’t fancy jumping across any more hundred-feet drops today. She heard the horrific groaning and snapping of metal and sparks as the UFO crashed to the ground far below them and didn’t dare look back, too horrified to see what they’d nearly been a part of.

“Rollo!”

As the two octolings pulled the doors safely closed behind them, Jake fought to stand up from his sitting place on the floor, struggling with his one injured arm and the unsteady ground beneath him.

“Jakey— _oof_!” Agent 4 was almost knocked over as his younger brother barrelled into him. “There’s my stupid little bro.”

Marie wasn’t fooled; she could read the underlying relief and affection in his voice as he hugged Jake back, holding him tightly as if he thought his little brother would crumble into even more pieces if he didn’t. He already had to double-take when his hand passed through the empty space where Jake’s right arm should’ve been.

Jake sobbed quietly into his brother’s shirt. Nobody had the heart to point out his crying this time; he was finally reunited with Agent 4 – Rollo – for real this time, with no brainwashing or giant glass prisons.

“Do we have everyone?” Sheldon called from the front of the truck.

“I sure hope so,” Marie responded. If there was anyone else down here with them, she had no clue who it would be; Agents 8 and 3 hadn’t mentioned the captain, so she could only hope her grandfather was somewhere safe or just straight-up not involved.

The back of the truck was mostly empty, as Sheldon had cleared it of equipment whenever he decided it was a good idea to strap rockets to the thing – he, at the very least, seemed convinced that the splatfest truck had helped to bring Callie back to her senses when she was brainwashed – but there were a few scattered pieces of a first aid kit which had rolled around the floor when the truck moved. Marina had returned to Pearl’s side; the short squid was lying on a makeshift bed of blankets and looked like she was barely conscious anymore. Their first priority upon reaching the surface would have to be getting her to a hospital, and also trying to think up a believable story for how this had happened when very few people knew about the existence of the octarians nowadays.

“Squid siblings group hug!” Callie cheered, pretty much invading on the two brothers’ emotional reunion as she wrapped her arms around them both, but neither of them seemed to mind. She held her hand out to Marie, trying to get her to join in.

“I’m not really a hugg—” The truck lurched underneath her as Sheldon started them on their journey back, and Agent 4 reached out to grab her arm and steady her as she nearly went straight to the ground. “Okay. Sure. Group hug. Hooray.” She would sacrifice her pride for a whole of three seconds as she too was dragged into this, even if her ‘hug’ was basically just patting each of her friends on the shoulder. Marie grimaced. “Agent 4, you smell awful.”

“… She’s right.” Jake also pulled a face, pulled out of his snivelling, as if having his brother back had desensitised him to it until now. “You stink.”

“Hey, I was stuck in a goldfish bowl for a week and I just fought an octarian menace, cut me some slack,” Agent 4 gave a half-hearted laugh.

Jake slithered out from his hold. “Okay, but you gotta take a shower as soon as we get home ‘cuz I am not sharing a house with _that_ all night.”

Agent 3, not a part of their little group, leant against the wall of the truck and slid down until she was sitting on her cape. “What the heck was actually going on here, anyway? Brainwashing machines? Octavio’s loose?”

“What happened to Octavio in the end?” Marina asked, her voice a little guarded as if she thought she might receive backlash for her question.

“He got away from us.” Marie decided to also sit down before a bump in their ride might force her to, and the others followed suit, Agent 4 helping his brother. “Or at least, most of him did.”

Callie flinched ever so slightly, but shook it off, dropping herself to the ground potentially more violently than she intended, and reached over to ruffle Jake’s hair. “Yeah, Marie got some revenge for you! Octavio is gonna be missing an arm for a while now too.”

“Shot it clean off,” Agent 3 smirked, and Marie felt such a sudden surge of emotions that she had to pinch her arm to distract herself before a blush could surface on her face. Now she remembered why she’d kept her distance from Agent 3 in the past year. “Violent, but effective. He released the zapfish before he ran away, too, so we don’t have to worry about getting that back.”

“Ah. That’s good.” Marina gave a small nod; if she had any further worries, she didn’t elaborate.

Marie left the storytelling mostly to Agent 4 and Callie, only interjecting when something was _wildly_ overemphasised – no, Callie, we didn’t fight off a huge wave of octoling soldiers – with Jake filling in a few of the gaps. They also learned that 3 and 8 had been responsible for destroying the machine, which Agent 4 thanked them for. “We should start a brainwashed club,” Callie joked, which for some reason pulled a nervous laugh out of Agent 3.

The truck glided at a brusque pace towards the entrance of the dome, and at one point when she glanced out through the windshield, Marie caught a glimpse of the Great Zapfish’s tail as it disappeared out into the fresh air. Hopefully it’d get back to Deca Tower alright on its own, and like always, the citizens of Inkopolis would be none the wiser about where it had been or what was going on beneath their feet.

Agent 8, who had also been sticking near Pearl, eventually decided that she’d be okay under Marina’s watch, and became more interested in their story, joining their little group. Marie couldn’t help but notice the way she settled down right at Agent 3’s side, enough so that the inkling agent shifted her leg a little so they weren’t touching. The slight envious feel curling in her stomach was disrupted as Callie caught her staring and elbowed her in the side. It hurt a lot more than she’d probably intended.

Sheldon’s landing skills were a little bumpy as they touched down at Tentakeel Outpost. The only way back out to Inkopolis by land from here was through the sewer pipe, and Pearl was too badly injured to transform into a squid to pass through it, so Sheldon opted to take the truck closer to the hospital so they could get her there. The others piled out as efficiently as they could to waste as little time as possible.

“Try not to get spotted by anyone in this thing or people are gonna start rumours,” Marie called to Sheldon as she left. Oh, it felt so good to be on solid ground again. She was starting to get a little motion sick from that truck.

“Where’s this place connect to Inkopolis?” Agent 3 asked, hovering at the door.

“Inkopolis Square.”

She looked thoughtful for only a moment before she shrugged and hopped out. “Close enough.” Agent 8 gave her an uneasy look, glancing from her to Pearl and Marina, and 3 waved her off. “Go with them; you’ll only be worrying about her otherwise.”

The octoling looked a little relieved and nodded, helping her to close the truck’s doors before it took off again, zooming up into the orange-tinted sky. A corner of the scaffolding at the top was still dented and broken from the last fight with Octavio, but at least it didn’t seem to have affected anything else.

“I guess we should head home,” Agent 4 decided, keeping one arm instinctively near his brother either to protect or shepherd him. “See what state the house is in now.”

“Probably _cleaner,_ since you weren’t living in it,” Jake scoffed, receiving a light punch in the shoulder for his joke.

“You’ll have a bunch of pizza boxes to recycle, thanks to Callie,” Marie added with a small grin. Her expression turned more serious as she glanced at Jake’s hand; the makeshift sleeve bandage had been replaced with an actual one, no doubt Marina’s doing. “Both of you make sure you wash those injuries when you get back. You don’t want them getting infected.”

Agent 4 held out his hands out in front of him and stared at them as if he’d forgotten about the scratches. Jake sighed as he tried to look at his own injured hand, and adjusted his broken glasses. “I’m gonna have to get these fixed before I can use them in turf.”

“I think you need to regrow your limb before you can go back into turf too,” Marie pointed out. “We can cover the damages for you, though, no worries.”

“Let us know if you need anything else, okay?” Callie offered. “Like… food and stuff. Maybe not pizza this time.”

“Thanks, Callie,” Agent 4 said with a genuine smile. He patted Jake’s back and headed for the grate. “C’mon, bro, let’s go. You able to transform?”

“Think so.” Jake took a few steps after him before hesitating, as if he’d forgotten something. He turned back to Marie and Callie. “It was really great to meet you guys, even if it was kinda… bad circumstances. I guess— thanks for everything, that’s what I’m trying to say.”

Callie beamed and stepped forward to give him a hug. “It was great to meet you too! We should hang out again sometime when you’re feeling better, and like, not do anything dangerous like fighting octarians this time.”

A small smile appeared on Jake’s face. “Sure. I like doing things that aren’t dangerous.”

“I never would have guessed, given your track record,” Marie tutted. Once Callie had freed him from the hug, she instinctively held a hand towards him to shake – she wasn’t a hugger – before quickly remembering his was injured, and changed her motion to pat his shoulder instead. “Stay safe, kid. No more solo missions. And remember I still owe you a lecture about not doing stupid stuff like that, okay?”

“Yes, Marie,” Jake droned as if he was being scolded by a teacher, and honestly, she couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

Callie and Marie waved as the two boys left through the grate, Jake transforming a little more hesitantly. No doubt they’d be seeing them both again soon, if only to check things were okay.

That only left them and Agent 3, who had taken a seat on the bench outside the cabin upon arriving here and hadn’t moved since. She didn’t appear to be paying attention to what they were doing, either, lost in her own world. Callie exchanged a glance with her cousin and wiggled her eyebrows – Marie hated when she did that, because it was never a good sign of what was about to happen – before skipping over to plop down on the bench next to Agent 3. She threw the idol a look of someone who didn’t particularly want to be disturbed, but Callie didn’t pick up on it.

“Sooo,” Callie started in that annoying schoolgirl-like tone of voice she always gained when teasing Marie about her crush, which was horrifying, because what on earth was she doing? “Is Agent 8 your girlfriend?”

“ _Callie_!” Marie hissed urgently. _You can’t just go up and_ ask _that!_

To her surprise, Agent 3 snorted in amusement. “Nah, she’s just scared and clingy. She’s super new to inklings and the whole agent thing. It’s more like I’m supposed to be babysitting her—or maybe she’s the one babysitting me, who knows.” She rolled her shoulders in a shrug. “Besides, she’s like, sixteen or something, as far as we know, or maybe less. Too young for me.”

Callie shot Marie a _meaningful_ look. Marie shot back the fiercest glare she’d given all year.

“Sounds like there’s an interesting story behind how you guys met,” Callie added, trying to disguise the reason she’d asked, _thank goodness_. She glanced down at herself and flinched. “I’m gonna… see if I can find anything to change into. Be right back.”

She vanished into the cabin, leaving Marie alone.

With Agent 3.

_Uh._

Not wanting to awkwardly stand there doing nothing, Marie hesitated for a moment before taking Callie’s space on the bench, keeping her hands firmly in her pockets. Was she… supposed to say something? Would that be awkward? Would it be more awkward to _not_ say anything?

_Just… ask about agent work, or something. That’s not awkward._ “What… happened on that mission with the captain?” Subconsciously, Marie’s gaze went to the scar on Agent 3’s face.

She didn’t know if her glance went noticed or not, but Agent 3 lifted a hand to it anyway. “… A lot. I don’t know if the captain wants us telling people about it, so… ask him, I guess.”

“Ah.” _Okay, maybe this_ is _a little awkward. Please come back, conversation skills._ “Do you know where he is now? I, uh… we don’t actually have any way to contact him, and he’s never at home.”

“He’s been spending time with his new friends in the metro, I think. They probably talk about golf all day, or other old man stuff.” Agent 3 gave a small laugh. “I think he still looks at the chatroom sometimes. I could add you to that.”

“The… chatroom?” Marie blinked. That sounded… awfully _technological_ for her grandfather.

“Yeah. He got his own phone and everything, I had to explain to him four times that he couldn’t call either of you without knowing what your numbers were.” 3 reached into her pocket and pulled out her arrow-shaped phone; the screen had numerous cracks across it, but judging from the fact she didn’t react, they must have happened before today. Honestly, Marie was impressed the screen still lit up, let alone registered her touch. Agent 3 held it out towards her. “Give me your number and I’ll add you to the chat. He should see your messages eventually.”

Marie’s mind blanked at the phrase ‘ _give me your number’._ That was… a whole lot more bases than she expected to suddenly be thrown into. “Uh…” _Help._

“Oh! Right. Celeb. Privacy, and all that, sorry.”

“No!” Marie startled herself with the energy of her own reply. “No, it’s fine, sorry, I just—sorry, it’s been a long day.” She self-consciously brushed her fringe aside a little with one hand, hoping she didn’t still have an ugly bruise across her face, and carefully took the phone from Agent 3, holding it like fine china even though she could probably throw it into the canyon and it wouldn’t get any more beat up than it already was. She silently thanked all the work contracts for helping her memorise what her number even was, because she hadn’t brought her phone down here with her and she rarely gave her number to anyone else.

When she handed it back, contact added, Agent 3 slid it back into her pocket and pushed herself up. “Sweet. I’ll shoot you a message with the invite link later. I’m gonna go back to Octo Valley, and… sleep this off, I guess.”

_A girl after my own heart._ Marie’s mind was still buzzing. “You gonna be okay walking there on your own?”

“Yeah. Ain’t far. Take care of yourselves, alright?” She offered a small wave, which Marie returned a little dazedly, and raised her voice so the other squid would hear her. “See ya, Callie.”

“Bye! I hope we see you again sometime soon!” Callie called from inside the cabin, which she’d shut the door of, so she must have found something to change into. How she was managing to do anything inside that mess of a building without getting hit by an avalanche was beyond Marie.

Once Agent 3 disappeared beneath the grate, Marie was left feeling a little dumbstruck, still trying to process what had just happened. And _everything_ that had happened, actually, but mostly the stuff from just now.

A few minutes later, Callie popped back out of the cabin, significantly less bloodstained but also significantly more a fashion disaster. “I hope nobody sees me wearing this,” she grumbled, stretching the ugly brown shirt a little. When Marie didn’t give any kind of snide remark about her attire, Callie tilted her head. “What’s up with you?”

“She, uh.” Marie blinked once. Twice. “She… asked me for my number.”

“OOOH!” Callie’s high-pitched exclamation was enough to snap her out of her daze for now. She hopped excitedly up and down for a moment before falling back into her teasing attitude. “Marie’s got a _girlfriend_!”

“It’s not—it was business stuff,” Marie muttered, picking at a splinter on the side of the bench. She wasn’t sure if she was trying to deter Callie from trying to poke her nose into stuff, or convince herself not to get too hopeful. “We should get going too. I really wanna get home.” _And sleep. For an entire day._

“Me too. I’m starving! Can we get fries on the way?”

“Did you even bring money with you here?”

Callie patted her sides, remembered she’d changed clothes, looked thoughtful for a moment as she tried to remember, then shook her head. “Nope. You?”

“You insisted I get here as soon as I could this morning, I wasn’t gonna bring my wallet to the canyon.” Marie rolled her eyes. “We’ll just reheat leftovers or something. Shitty meal to end a shitty day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest non-epilogue chapter in the story and I _could_ have split it into two, but 25 is a nicer number than 26, so Long Chapter it is.
> 
> Remember earlier when I said the bonus chatlog from octo expansion hadn't happened yet? Now we have a squid story explanation for how Marie even got into that room in the first place.


	24. Regular Schedule

“That zapfish sure wanders of a lot, huh Marie?”

“Sure, but who knows where it goes? At least it always comes back!”

“Maybe it just likes to go for a stroll now and then.” Callie forced a giggle to match their script. “Well, that’s all for now! Until next time…”

They both pulled off the pose they’d done multiple times a day years ago; now it felt so natural and strange at the same time as they spoke in unison. “Stay fresh!”

The pose was held until the light on the camera flickered off, and almost immediately Callie collapsed into Pearl’s spinning chair with a groan. She wished they could’ve used their studio in Inkopolis Plaza, but setting everything up like the good old days would’ve been way too much effort just to fill in for Off the Hook for a few days.

“Oh, me too,” Marie joked at her sound with a tired huff, looking around for somewhere she could sit down, with her options being ‘the floor’ and crossing to the other side of the room where the table was. “Does Marina have legs of steel or something? Geez.” It felt so unusual now to see her in the authentic Squid Sisters outfit.

“I get the cool chair today,” Callie said softly, already having pretty much curled up on it. “My stomach’s killing me.”

She’d been the happiest she had all month yesterday afternoon, after Faye had sent Marie a link to some kind of chatroom where they could contact their grandfather, and they finally managed to track him down after so long and have dinner together, even if they ended up deciding not to tell him about all the awful things that’d happened while he was away. Seaweed stew didn’t agree with her, though, and she was still feeling the repercussions from it. _Eugh…_

Even so, she suffered through the multiple recordings they had to do for the news that day. It had been Callie’s idea to cover for Pearl and Marina while Pearl recovered from her injury, because Marina had bluffed her absence as being an injury she gained in turf war – their original plan before they ended up in the octarians’ mess – and therefore their manager didn’t realise quite how serious it was and didn’t want Marina doing the news by herself for more than one day, and was trying to drag Pearl back to work when she really needed more rest. It felt like the least they could offer for their help in this mess, although Marie hadn’t been quite so enthusiastic when Callie dragged her out of bed at eight that morning. _Too much_ like the old days for her.

Callie changed into her Agent 1 gear when they were done, which she’d bleached the hell out of to remove all traces of Octavio’s blood, and curled up on a beanbag in the studio’s foyer as she waited for Marie to wash off the mountain of makeup the artists had put on her to hide all traces of the injury on her face. It wasn’t super obvious since it was under her fringe, but if she moved too much it _did_ become visible, and the last thing they needed was for people to notice and spread rumours about how she got it.

“You look awful,” Marie commented when she finally showed up, now in her Agent 2 gear and ready for them to venture out, two disguised stars in the unsuspecting public.

“Thanks.” Callie rubbed at her eyes and pushed herself up into sitting, reaching up to slide down her shades and pausing when she realised they weren’t there, because she’d lost them when she fell off that bridge in the octarian city. She’d have to get some new ones soon and hope nobody recognised her in the meantime. “You do too.”

Marie gave a good-natured laugh from behind her facemask, offering her a hand. “Makes me less recognisable.” Without the makeup, her eyes looked even more tired than usual, and Callie knew it wasn’t just from getting up early this morning.

Callie was grateful for the help up, because beanbags were difficult to escape sometimes. She hoped Marie’s joke held some truth to it, as she was pretty sure she looked like walking death right now too; her sleep had been disrupted by nightmares for the past two nights, to the point where she couldn’t tell if she’d actually gotten any at all.

The sunlight felt unusually glaring as they stepped out the building, and Callie regretted even more than she didn’t have her shades anymore. “I’m gonna… go home and see if I can sleep this off,” she decided, her voice uncharacteristically quietened by her tiredness and upset stomach.

“Want me to walk back with you?”

“It’s a ten minute walk, I’ll be fine.” Perhaps under any normal circumstance, Callie would’ve been patronised by the fact that Marie didn’t seem to think she could be left to her own devices for such a short amount of time, but right now… she had the feeling that wasn’t why she asked, and why she’d barely let her out of sight in the past day and a half. Usually Marie would try not to spend too much time with her in public areas, because the combination of their black and white hair made them even more recognisable as the Squid Sisters.

Marie was scared something else would happen to her and she’d lose her again. It was clear enough from the anxiety in her eyes, and she almost looked like she might protest and demand to see her home just to make absolutely sure she got there safely.

“I promise I’ll stay super extra safe and won’t get abducted or anything,” Callie assured her, giving Marie a gentle nudge in the direction of town. “Go get coffee; I can sense your need for caffeine.”

“You’re terrifying.” A smile creased her tired eyes as Marie gave a denying shake of her head. “Alright. See you later.”

 

* * *

 

Jake yawned excessively loudly and stretched his arm up, finding that as usual he just _barely_ couldn’t reach the top of the doorway to his room. The scratches on his hand and wrist stung a little, but not with the fire of infection. He didn’t know if Rollo was up yet, but if he was, hopefully the noise would grab his attention, letting him know that Jake was awake.

There was no response, though. No ‘good morning’, no complaint at his obnoxiously loud yawn.

_Maybe he’s still asleep._ Rollo was good at getting up early if he needed to, but due to his night owl tendencies he often slept late if he didn’t set an alarm, catching up on the hours he missed on other days. If he was still in bed, though, he must have been asleep for ages; he hadn’t gone to bed all _that_ late last night.

A lot had happened recently, though. Jake couldn’t exactly blame him for being tired.

“Rollo? You up yet?” he asked from outside his brother’s door. Jake reached out to knock; he’d learnt a long time ago that there could be various visually-scarring repercussions to just bursting into his room unannounced. As soon as he made contact with the door, though, it swung open. It wasn’t even closed to begin with.

_He always closes the door at night._ Jake frowned. “Rollo?” Cautiously, he pushed the door open, peering inside.

Empty. Rollo’s bed was a mess, the duvet kicked to the foot of it and one corner of the crumpled sheets had freed itself, as if he’d slept fitfully and hadn’t bothered to sort it out afterwards.

_Why isn’t he here?_

Immediately a painfully familiar feeling of panic set in. There was only one reason, as of recent, why Rollo had been _not_ _here_.

“Rollo!?” He called, louder now, hoping he was just in the bathroom or something. No response.

About to dart off through the house, maybe search every unlikely spot in the hopes that Rollo was there and _not_ somehow dragged away by the octarians despite their leader going into hiding and their machine being destroyed, a quick glance at the corner of the room made Jake pause.

The case for the roller. It was propped up at the intersection of walls, and when Jake went to investigate, the weight of it showed that the roller was still inside.

“He doesn’t… have his weapon.” That was either a good sign or a bad sign, and Jake couldn’t tell which. On the one hand, it would be odd for the octarians to brainwash him to leave and not take the weapon with him, but if anything happened to him, he was unarmed.

_Well—Rollo isn’t exactly helpless. I guess I’m the real unarmed one here._ Jake gave a dry laugh at his mental pun, feeling the weird inky stump at his right shoulder sting. He could swear that the pain of having his arm shot off was nothing compared to the constant ache of the limb trying to grow back, and it _looked_ kind of gross too. It’d grow back as an awkward squid tentacle limb like he’d had as a child before his body adjusted and let him form it into a humanoid arm again.

No matter how much he wished things could go back to normal, Rollo had vanished again, Jake was going to be stuck like this for at least another month, and his ability to do anything that required even _one_ hand would be more difficult until the wounds from that splat bomb fully healed.

Feeling familiar tears prickling in the corners of his eyes, Jake vigorously shook his head. _No. Don’t cry._ He’d manage to brave so much in the past few weeks; he wasn’t going to start crying now just because he couldn’t find which room his brother was in.

A quick search of the nearest rooms led him to the kitchen, where he was soon hit by a rather nice smell. On the counter lay a plate of pancakes, and a scruffily-written note which Jake instantly recognised as Rollo’s handwriting, as soon as he was close enough to actually read it with his older prescription of glasses.

_Going out for a bit. Made pcakes. Microwave them if they go cold. R x_

Relief slowly settled Jake’s nerves. So Rollo was just out somewhere, of his own accord, not because an evil voice in his head told him to.

Unless they did, and they were smart enough to make him leave a note…

_The machine is gone now. They can’t control him._ Jake took a deep breath, repeating this over in his head. Still, it wasn’t like Rollo to just wander off. He rarely ever took walks for the sake of walking; if he wanted exercise, he’d dabble in turf war for a while. He got paid for that. He couldn’t do any kind of match without his weapon, so that definitely wasn’t where he was.

Jake wanted to go out and look for him, but he didn’t want to leave the house on his own, not with his arm like this. People stared, and he didn’t want to risk running into anyone he knew. Instead, he decided to locate his phone, which, after a few minutes of searching turned up, was still by his bedside. He pulled up the messages of his most recently added contact, struggling to type with his injured hand.

[09:55] hav u seen rolo

[09:55] sorry. Ant 4

[09:56] agt 4

[09:56] agrt

[09:56] aent

[09:56] I giv p

[09:58] don’t strain yourself, buddy.

[09:58] not today, no. You live with him, haven’t you seen him today?

[09:58] no

[09:59] hes not home he lef a note sayin he went out

[09:59] his oller is hre still

[09:59] roller

[09:59] I can still tell what you’re saying eve with the typos it’s okay.

[09:59] even

[09:59] carp now you’ve got me doing it too

[10:00] anyway. Do you think he just went for a walk?

[10:00] he doent usly do that

[10:00] hed turf but he din take wepon

[10:00] there’s a first time for everything.

[10:00] Callie dragged me out here disgustingly early so I’ll keep an eye out for him.

[10:00] I’ll let you know if I see him. You should get more rest.

[10:00] stay fresh

[10:00] thnk mari3 !

[10:00] close enuf

The iconic line managed to bring a smile to his face, at least. Perhaps now that all the madness had passed he should be excited that he’d not only managed to meet but _befriend_ the Squid Sisters, but the circumstances had really put a damper on it. They felt just like regular people to him now; that was probably a good thing, and something he probably shouldn’t say to Marie lest he want another earful.

He’d done enough of ignoring people and trying to deal with things on his own for one week; perhaps he should actually take Marie’s advice for once and try to go back to sleep. After dealing with the pancakes Rollo had left him first, of course…

 

* * *

 

Everything was a huge, foggy mess. It was like wading through enemy ink that was waist deep, trying to regain control of his own mind and body, but invasive thoughts of murder and revenge kept running through his mind, and even though he was vaguely aware they weren’t his own he couldn’t help but follow what they told him to do.

Screaming. Blood.

He was trying to kill them.

_I don’t want to do this!_

His brother was there, on the ground, crying out in pain because of the shot that tore through the muscles of his arm, until Octavio snatched him up to put him out of his suffering.

_No!_

“Excuse, me… sir?”

Rollo snapped awake, finding himself slouched over a table. Panic overtook his mind when he glimpsed the natural blue colour of his hair, but upon realising he still had the ability to change it to pink, he breathed a sigh of relief.

_Just dreaming._

“Sorry for awakening you, but I feared you may have been possible to scare our other customers.” Rollo glanced in the direction of the voice to see a jellyfish in a waiter’s uniform waving one wobbly arm at him.

“Oh… sorry,” Rollo apologised sheepishly, hoping the jellyfish hadn’t seen the fear in his eyes past the shades he’d thrown on before leaving the house. He wasn’t keen on being recognised if any of his team were out and about in Inkopolis Square this morning; he still needed to think up a believable story for why he’d been missing for weeks, one which didn’t involve the octarians. Perhaps going pink wasn’t the smartest idea. _Yellow today._ He let the colour spread over his hair.

“That being said, please do the buying something soon or leave,” the jellyfish said curtly, beginning to walk away.

“Sure.” Rollo took the sunglasses as a good excuse to roll his eyes, since it most likely wouldn’t be noticeable. He instinctively reached for his pockets to see if he had any spare change, only to find they didn’t exist because he wasn’t wearing his jacket. _Whoops._ He’d thrown on some older clothes, leaving his cap at home and not even bothering to tie up his hair. It hung at the sides of his face, making him feel a little off-balance.

Rollo let out a deep sigh. At least the jellyfish were unlikely to recognise him. Maybe he could wait here until one of them tried to chase him off.

After tossing and turning all night and failing to sleep without nightmares, he’d decided to head into town for a breath of fresh air and a distraction, but apparently the sleep deprivation had caught up with him.

Restlessness had led him into a few rounds of turf war yesterday, but he’d given up before long. Each match put him up against a charger on the other team, which he’d usually have no problem dealing with thanks to the ninja squid ability of his jacket, but each time he went to swing at them his body would just _stop_. If it wasn’t his brother he was seeing with a charger aimed at him, it was Marie. He’d hesitate a moment too long and get splatted himself, and would land in the spawn point trying to get the fuzzy memories out of his head.

He probably shouldn’t try going into ranked for a while.

It didn’t occur to him that he’d been staring at the table for the past five minutes until the noise of something being placed on it made him jump. Coffee seemed to have materialised in front of him. He turned to the jellyfish standing next to him, about to tell them this must be the wrong table because he hadn’t actually ordered anything yet – and probably get kicked out for it – but instead of a jellyfish, he was met with an inkling.

Rollo almost didn’t recognise her at first, through the darkness of the shades he wasn’t used to. It was only when she smiled, more of a smirk than a genuine grin, that things finally clicked.

“Slouching’s bad for you, Agent 4.”

 

* * *

 

It was safe to say Agent 4 hadn’t been expecting to see her here. Perhaps not to be recognised at all, and to be fair she’d almost passed by his table without a second glance, but despite his out-of-character attire, there was no hiding the obnoxiously large tentacle that fell over his right eye, and he _had_ changed his ink colour to the same one he’d used when first battling the octarians as an agent.

“Uh… hey. How—how are you, Mar—Agent 2?” There was an awkward tension in his greeting, and not only because he was trying to decide if saying her name aloud might draw attention from anyone within earshot.

“Tired. Had to get up early this morning; we’ve been covering the news.” She cast a glance at one of the empty chairs pushed under the table. “Mind if I take a seat?”

“Nah. Go ahead.” He gave a small shrug.

Even with the glasses on, Marie could tell he looked exhausted; she was more than used to trying to read expressions through shades. “Taking fashion hints from Callie, huh?” she said as a light-hearted joke, setting her mug on the table before pulling out a chair to sit.

At least that managed to draw a small laugh out of him. “Sure.” He reached behind his head, as if about to attempt tying his hair back, but gave up when he had nothing to tie it with. Marie had never actually seen him with his hair down before; perhaps he didn’t like wearing it that way in public. That was a feeling she could relate to.

Careful not to topple it by accident, she pushed the extra coffee cup slightly closer to him. “Here. You look like you could use it. No offense.”

“You didn’t have to—thanks.” He gave a smile, partially out of politeness, and took a sip. “Wow. How’d you know what I usually get?”

“Lucky guess,” Marie shrugged. That was a lie; Jake had told Callie all sorts of random things about his brother during the week they spent time at his house, and of course Callie felt the need to relay all of this pointless information to her. Evidently, not _all_ of it was totally useless, like his abysmal taste in coffee.

They sat in silence for a long while. Marie watched the steadily-growing bustle of Inkopolis Square, as inklings swarmed around the stores and Deca Tower, all completely oblivious to everything that had happened in the past few months. Hopefully she was still relatively below the radar in this area, and wouldn’t get recognised with her facemask pulled down. She couldn’t drink coffee with it on, and coffee was the highlight of any morning when she was dragged out of bed at 8am.

Marie knew a lot of information about Agent 4, but most of it was match info she’d gathered from the official records. Even when she’d first recruited him, when he helped her rescue Callie, he rarely spoke about himself. He’d mentioned having a brother once or twice, but it was sparse enough that Marie had forgotten Jake existed until they met him – well, more like inadvertently kidnapped him off the street.

True, she considered him a friend, but it felt more like a _professional_ friendship; he’d taken on missions, she’d guided him along, occasionally with Sheldon’s help. Maybe once or twice he’d listened to her moping when she’d be suddenly hit by how much she missed her cousin, but that was the most emotion-sharing that had gone on between them.

He had opened up a little more when Callie was back, but… that just seemed to be an effect she had on people. If Callie was around, and she wanted a conversation, more often than not she’d manage to get one. That was something Marie wasn’t quite so skilled at; perhaps that was why Callie had been drawn to talk shows and she hadn’t.

Searching for the right words to break the silence, and habitually pretending she was still preoccupied with her drink even when the mug was empty, Marie eventually gave up and set it back on the table before Agent 4 could notice and question it. “How’s Jake?” That seemed like a decent subject, even if she’d heard from his little brother a few minutes ago anyway.

Agent 4 looked to be lost in thought, worrying the lid of his styrofoam cup; Marie made sure to get his coffee to-go in her nice gesture, so he wouldn’t feel obliged to sit with her and finish his drink if he didn’t want to. At the question, he paused, as if becoming aware of his actions again. “Huh? Oh, he’s fine, just recovering and waiting for new lenses. I made breakfast for him before I left.”

_What about for yourself?_ Marie wanted to ask, but he probably wouldn’t appreciate her nagging him over his health habits. She could save that for another day, when recent events didn’t hang over them like a dark cloud. “I’m sorry for dragging him into this.”

Agent 4 just shrugged. “He’d either end up getting involved on his own somehow or never know why I was missing. I guess I should thank you for looking out for him, even though he’s impossible to keep track of sometimes.” He gave the slightest laugh.

“Family, huh.” Marie couldn’t help but smile, although it was a little forced. The time she’d spent worrying what had happened to Callie when she’d vanished for weeks still felt relatively fresh in her mind, and she’d never wish that on Jake.

Would she have accepted having a limb torn off if that had been what it took to save her cousin? _Absolutely._

“How un-generic-conversation-holding of me,” Marie said, fearing the awkward silence was about to come back. “I never asked how _you_ were. You doing okay?”

“Yeah.” His reply was a little too fast to be anything more than an equally-generic one; who replied to ‘how are you’ with anything but a positive response?

“It’s alright if you’re not.”

His moment of surprise was almost camouflaged by the shades. _Almost_. Agent 4 folded his hands together – they were still scratched up from the broken glass, but at least none of it looked infected – before taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh. “Thanks, ‘rie. I’m okay, really, just… paranoid, I guess. Like I might suddenly just… lose control of my own body again.”

_So that’s why you left before your brother even woke up this morning._ “I guess that’s understandable,” Marie nodded slowly, surprised he’d actually opened up to her, and feeling a little guilty that she could still feel the remainders of her distrust for him even though the reason why wasn’t his fault. _And…_ _‘Rie? That’s a new one._  “That machine got blown to bits, so you should be safe now.”

“Yeah. I know that, logically, but it just doesn’t feel like that, y’know?” He froze, as if he suddenly felt like he’d revealed too much. Agent 4 didn’t seem used to sharing his feelings. “It’ll probably wear off soon. It’s only been a few days.”

“Well, we’re here if you need anything.” She gave a friendly smile. “Although, granted, cheering up others is more Callie’s forte than mine.”

“You should give yourself more credit,” Agent 4 said, with the most genuine smile he’d had so far that day. “I could definitely use some help trying to come up with a good explanation for missing so much league practice with my team, though, if you’re any good at that.”

Marie smirked. “Oh, trust me, thanks to the octarians I’ve had to come up with a _lot_ of cover-up stories in the past few years.”

 

* * *

 

Pearl fought against sleep as she blinked her eyes open, seeing the fuzzy bright numbers of her digital clock on the bedside table. Man, she was super tired today, so hopefully she had time to get some more sleep. What did it say…?

11:06AM.

Her hearts skipped a beat. “Oh, carp! I’m late for wor—fuUU _UU_ — _shit_!” Pearl tried to fling herself up to get out of bed and was hit by splitting pain across her left shoulder, and ended up falling back to the mattress and pressing a hand to it, face scrunched up as she waited for the agony to fade.

_Ah. Right. That happened._ She’d spent a night at the hospital and only got home yesterday, inadvertently leaving her poor girlfriend to try and explain her absence at work. The injury was probably why her bed felt so empty; Marina usually slept in here with her despite having her own room, but she was worried about accidentally upsetting Pearl’s shoulder in her sleep. The tentacles of her octoling hair could get incredibly clingy when she was snoozing.

It was only a few seconds before Pearl heard urgent footsteps in the hall, because _of course_ her loud cry of pain had attracted attention. At least Marina was the only other one who lived here. The octoling burst into the room, looking worried and only a little out of breath. “Pearlie, are you okay?”

“I’m _fine_ , just… forgot my shoulder was busted, that’s all,” Pearl responded sulkily, sinking a little deeper into her plush mattress. “What’s work doing, don’t they need us there?” Despite her words essentially being ‘why aren’t you at the studio’, she contradicted them by patting the mattress next to her.

“Callie offered to cover the news with Marie for a few days so you can get some more rest,” Marina told her, sitting down carefully to her right side.

“Really? Damn. We gotta all go get dinner again or something to thank them.” Perhaps that wouldn’t be enough, but… Pearl was bad at judging these things. Marina felt so far away from her right now, like she was trying her best to keep her distance. Pearl’s voice fell into a tired whine. “Rinaaaaaa…”

“Whaaaaat?” Marina mimicked back, giving a small smile as she reached over to brush a dishevelled tentacle of hair from Pearl’s face.

“Lay down here with meeeee.”

“You’re injured, Pearlie.”

“I may be wounded, but I am _not_ a coward and I _will_ cuddle my girlfriend,” Pearl huffed. “Anyway, you look like ya need a hug.”

Marina’s smile faltered a little. “Yeah… sure.” Extremely carefully, as if she thought the slightest tremor in the mattress might throw her girlfriend into agonising pain, she settled herself down next to Pearl, not really close enough for cuddles but enough that she could hold her hand.

Pearl watched her silently for a moment; something was definitely up, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to guess what, given what had just happened. “You’re not mad at me for what happened in that place, right?” Her voice was uncharacteristically soft for the attitude she held most of the time, but… she loved Marina, and she absolutely did not want her to be sad.

“Not at you.” Marina didn’t meet her gaze, instead staring at her green-tipped fingers laced with Pearl’s in front of her. One of the longer tentacles of her hair naturally curled around her girlfriend’s arm when it brushed against her.

“Ah.” That was much harder to resolve, and there wasn’t much Pearl could do about it; it was up to Marina to forgive herself for what had happened. “You know this ain’t your fault. Octa-whatsit was mind-controlling you.”

The grip tightened on her hand a little. “I know, it’s just… I shouldn’t have put on those shades. I had a feeling something was wrong. And I just… I know they didn’t exist two years ago, and I _know_ Octavio must have started brainwashing them all because of me and if I hadn’t left or even if I just focused more maybe I would’ve been able to find some way to stop this while we were down there and he could return at any point and—”

“Whoa, whoa! No, no blaming yourself allowed,” Pearl interrupted as Marina started to fall into speaking-way-too-fast-for-her-to-keep-up-when-she’d-been-awake-for-five-minutes territory. “If you hadn’t left that place, I wouldn’t have the most awesome amazing wonderful girlfriend in the whole world! An’ you aren’t the only octoling in Inkopolis, so you’re not the _only_ one who left.” Pearl gave her hand a tight squeeze. “No point blaming yourself over things that happened in the past when we can find a way to help things now!”

Marina stared at her with wide eyes, crinkling at the edges as a genuine smile found its way back onto her face. “Wow, Pearl. When did you get so wise?”

“Excuse you, I have _always_ been wise! They call me MC Wisepants, the wisest of the wisen, ready to wise all up in your busin’!” Her impromptu rap drew a giggle out of Marina, and Pearl grinned brighter. “An’ like, if you wanna try and help anyone, know I am absolutely ten hundred percent here to support you, even if I don’t have a clue what your fancy nerd words mean.”

The anxious vibes from Marina faded completely. She finally shuffled closer to kiss Pearl’s cheek. “Thanks, Pearlie. I don’t think I said this yet, so… I’m so glad you were with me down there, even if… _this_ happened. I don’t know how it would have ended otherwise.”

_Probably with Octavio forcing you back into his army of brainwashed soldiers._ Pearl didn’t want to think about that possible outcome too much. “Of course! I’m always here for you, ‘Rina, and _someone_ had to kick Octavio’s butt.”

Marina laughed, giving a small shake of her head. “If I remember correctly, it was _Marie_ that defeated him. You never even saw what he looked like!”

Pearl scoffed. “Shh! Shush. I was there in spirit, kicking his butt for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact the Jake & Rollo sections of this chapter were among some of the few to get written....... they got edited A Lot at the end to make everything match up haha
> 
> Only the epilogue left now, see you on thursday!!


	25. Epilogue: Festival

Night had fallen on Inkopolis, but this was one of the few nights where the city was far from quiet. Music reverberated from the square and spotlights danced around the sky, lighting up confetti that fluttered to the pavement from the windows above, carried on the chilly breeze. The square was alight with giant screens and the glow of neon sticks as people waved them excitedly, cheering for the two idols performing on the platform above Deca Tower’s entrance.

Rollo did not have a huge interest in splatfest. Music and dancing wasn’t really his thing, it caused the ranked modes to close early, and not to mention the concept of everyone teaming up to fight for such a menial subject, which this month was ‘socks vs shoes’. If the themes were really chosen by some otherworldly power as the news claimed, the gods didn’t have a particularly interesting fate for them.

There was definitely an energetic atmosphere to it, though. Plus… this _was_ the first time Jake had been able to go.

“Come _on_ , Rollo, we gotta get somewhere we can see them!” His little brother dragged him through the dense crowd with impressive strength, bouncing on the spot whenever he physically couldn’t squeeze between two inklings and had to wait for them to move aside. Rollo gave sheepish looks and apologies that were drowned out by all the noise every time someone threw them an irritated glance.

Just this once, he was willing to put up with all this for Jake. He more than owed it to him by this point. It was something Rollo didn’t dare say out loud, though, knowing it’d only remind Jake of everything that happened and upset him again.

Finally finding a spot where his view wasn’t obstructed by the taller creatures in front of him, Jake released his brother’s arm and went back to hopping excitedly, causing the weapon case on his back to rattle. “Look, look! We can see them from here! Isn’t it great!?”

“Sure… I guess,” Rollo shrugged, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious of his own height and wondering if he should sit down or something so he wasn’t blocking anyone behind him who might _actually_ be interested in watching Off the Hook’s concert. They would do a performance of each of their songs – Rollo couldn’t tell where one ended and another began to work out how far they were through it – and then turf wars would open for the rest of the night, Pearl and Marina’s teams pit against each other in order to try and win the most matches as Off the Hook’s music blasted from speakers on the chosen stages.

If it were just up to him, Rollo would’ve stayed at home, but Jake _really_ wanted to take part in this splatfest, and Rollo felt obliged to keep an eye on him. Jake’s right arm had finished growing back within the past few weeks, and was mostly done transforming into a proper useable limb, but he still needed to wear a protective medical glove over it while the skin reformed. Not only that, but because splatfest required that everyone wear the branded splatfest tees, he’d refused to go without wearing a binder underneath, and Rollo was worried he might get hurt if he went overboard on the matches in his enthusiasm.

The music went quiet, and Rollo could only tell it was a transition between songs because of the audience cheering and clapping for the duo on stage. Bored already, and even more so now there was temporarily no dancing to watch, he glanced around the square. The place was crowded with inklings and octolings and jellyfish alike, but in the shadows in the northwest corner near to where the connection to Octo Canyon was, he caught a glimpse of some familiar colours.

“Hey. C’mon, Jake, let’s go this way,” Rollo stated, grabbing his brother’s left arm.

“Huh? What?” Jake blinked in surprise as he was suddenly the one being pulled through the crowd, but he didn’t try to fight. “Why? I could see fine back there.”

“I know, you can watch the concert on the way or somethin’, I saw someone we know.”

“If it’s Chance, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Rollo automatically froze at the sound of his name, but quickly shook it off. He could tell from the evil look on Jake’s face that he’d noticed. “It is _not_! Just—shut up, you’ll know when we get there.”

It was a lot easier, and required a lot less apologising, to navigate his way through the crowd when he was the one leading. The mass of people thinned out a lot towards the edges, where the view wasn’t quite as good – which he could faintly hear Jake complaining about – and once they finally broke free, he could see his suspicion was correct.

“Will you _stop_ dancing!?” The kimono-clad inkling hissed, placing a firm hand on the shoulder of the more casually-dressed one next to her as if that would be enough to make her stay still. “Someone is gonna recognise us.”

Callie shrugged her off, watching what little of the stage she could see from here as she tried to imitate one of Pearl’s moves. “Stop being such a killjoy, M, it’s _splatfest_!”

“ _Ugh_.” Marie rolled her eyes and lightly smacked a palm to her face, lowering the parasol closer to her head and causing the reflected light to make her white hair appear slightly greener like the ends were. “Next time I’m going alone and banishing you to the outpost.”

“You can’t do that!” Callie huffed. “You’re not my _mom_!” She stuck her tongue out at her cousin.

“Sometimes it feels like I have to be, you act like such a child.”

“I do _not_!”

“Ladies, ladies!” Putting on his most annoyingly patronising voice, Rollo approached them at last. “The fighting isn’t supposed to start for another five minutes.”

His intervention earned him an incredibly hostile glare from Marie until she actually realised who he was. “Oh, it’s you, Four. The hell are you doing here?”

Rollo pretended to look hurt. “Wow, darling, I can’t believe you would speak to me this way.” He held his fist out towards her.

“If you ever call me that again I’m gonna kick you where it hurts.” Amusement in her eyes, Marie stared at his hand for a moment before she finally humoured him and bumped his knuckles with her own.

“It’s so good to see you!” Callie beamed, skipping the formalities and going in for a hug that Rollo wasn’t entirely expecting, but he was bigger than her and managed to catch his balance before she could push him over. The corner of her shades still dug uncomfortably into his cheek, though. “It feels like it’s been _ages_!”

Rollo patted her back before she let him go. “It probably has been.” He hadn’t seen either of them in person for at least a month, the last time being when he’d gone on a brief mission for the New Squidbeak Splatoon along with Agent 8 to check some of the domes for octarian activity and found nothing. They could only assume for now that Octavio was still recovering from his injury and not immediately seeking revenge, but who knew how much time they really had until he tried anything else.

The whole platoon had been planning some way to help the remaining octolings who were living under Octavio’s rule in the domes; they’d been forced to live underground after The Great Turf War, but with Octavio’s obsession with military and revenge, their numbers had greatly dwindled over the years. Many of them had already escaped to Inkopolis, and there was probably inhabitable space _somewhere_ for the ones that remained now, but Octavio’s control over them was the main hurdle they had to pass. In her free time, Marina had been working on finding some way they could broadcast the Calamari Inkantation throughout the octo city and break through the brainwashing to retrieve the others. If it was stressing her out at all, she hid it well in her public performance. At least Pearl had made a full recovery, if her energetic dancing was anything to go by.

“I gotta say, I didn’t expect to see you at splatfest of all places,” Marie commented, twirling the parasol in her hands. “Didn’t seem like your thing, mister I-don’t-know-who-the-Squid-Sisters-are.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Rollo shrugged, wondering why she hadn’t noticed already. “I mean, I’m only here because of—” He glanced to his side, and then his other side, and found only empty space. Ah. That was why. “Aaaaand he’s gone again.”

Ignoring the dry laugh Marie tried but failed to stifle, he looked around to see where on earth his brother had vanished to this time. He was still at the edge of the crowd, where there was a better view of the stage, watching the concert with an excited gleam in his eyes. “Hey! Jake, get over here!” Jake’s ears twitched, but he ignored his brother. Rollo sighed.

“Don’t worry, man, we understand your struggle now,” Marie joked.

“I got this.” Callie clapped her hands together and sucked in a deep breath. “ _JAKE_!”

Despite Marie’s abrupt fussing that _don’t be so loud you’re going to draw attention to us,_ her voice barely even carried over the loud music. It was enough for Jake to hear, though, and realising someone who _wasn’t_ Rollo was trying to get his attention, he actually looked around finally, brow furrowing in confusion at first before rising in surprise as he recognised his friends. With one last glance up at the concert, he hurried over to them, a bright smile on his face. “Hey!”

“Ja-a-ake, it’s great to see you again!” Callie held her arms out for a hug and almost took a squelcher case to the face when she got it. That didn’t deter her, though, squeezing him tightly before she drew back and lifted his hands in her own. “You have _arms_!”

“I do!” Jake hopped a little, only his heels leaving the ground. “I haven’t tried using a weapon yet, but I can kinda write again and pick things up, so…”

“Flinging yourself right into splatfest, I see,” Marie said with a smirk. “I take it that’s why Four is at a concert.”

“Yeah.” Rollo patted his little brother’s head. “He’s… still recovering; I’m here to drag him back home before he wears himself out.”

“He thinks I’ll die if I wear a binder in a turf match,” Jake translated simply, directing a huff at him.

“… Oh. They know?” Rollo raised an eyebrow. “You told them?” He didn’t want to out his brother to anyone, and it definitely surprised him that Jake was so open about being trans to their newest friends. Perhaps the fresh start in Inkopolis was really helping him after all, if he’d already made some friends he trusted that much.

Jake nodded. “I mean, Marie kinda found out accidentally, but—I trust her not to out me to anyone.”

Rollo couldn’t help but notice Marie’s features soften a little; perhaps Jake really had grown on her, despite her complaints. “Yeah, I won’t. Don’t say my name in public, though, someone might overhear.”

“Oh! Right. Sorry.”

More cheers rose from the crowd with the last few beats of a song Rollo had no hope of placing, and once the applause petered out, Pearl and Marina gave their well wishes to the audience and announced the first stage rotations for the evening; Blackbelly Skatepark and Arowana Mall, as well as the mysterious Shifty Station that Marina had helped put together for the celebration. The doors to Deca Tower opened, and the members of the crowd with splatfest tees on started to make their way inside, with the few others dispersing to either go home or watch the matches.

“I guess once the current slows down we should head on in,” Rollo observed, watching from across the square as Judd went through a sudden transformation from dancing around excitedly for the concert back to lazy cat, as his small counterpart climbed back up to sit on his belly. Looking back to his friends, he saw Callie’s obvious look of disappointment that their meeting was so short, and an idea started to form in his mind. “You know, we’re going to get put on a team with random other people if just the two of us go in, but if we had _two_ _more_ squids…”

“We can’t—” Marie started, but was interrupted by Callie’s enthusiastic “ _absolutely_!”. The two cousins stared at each other for a moment.

“Aw, come on, M! We _never_ got to take part in splatfest back when we hosted it!” Callie whined, putting on her best puppy eyes.

“No way.” Marie gave her an adamant look. “Someone’s bound to recognise us, and besides, our weapons aren’t even turf standard anymore. We wouldn’t be allowed in. Not to mention, there’s no way I can fight in _this_.” She shook one of the sleeves of her kimono meaningfully.

“I’m sure Sheldon would let us borrow some weapons if we asked nicely! Or, y’know, give him money. He might have some turf gear we can borrow too!” Callie grabbed her cousin’s arm, hopping excitedly. “Pleeeeease?”

“It’ll be fun,” Rollo added helpfully. Jake also watched her with a hopeful expression.

“Well…” Marie looked between the three of them, managing to retrieve her arm. She still looked uncertain.

“If you come with us, I’ll do all the grocery shopping for a _month_ ,” Callie insisted.

Marie gave a wry smile; apparently that was enough to win her over. “Okay, _fine_ , as long as you don’t turn all our cereal into pure sugar.”

“ _Yes_!” Callie and Jake cheered in unison. Callie held her hand out to Rollo for a high five, which he returned enthusiastically.

“Alright,” Rollo rubbed his hands together. “You two go get weapons and gear and join our splatfest team, and we’ll meet you in the lobby after.”

 

* * *

 

Rollo kept a close eye on Jake while they waited in the lobby, just in case he somehow vanished into the mob of crowd again, but without a concert to distract him this time, he stayed put, thankfully. The place was extremely busy when they first went in, but as the crowds got sorted into rooms they gradually thinned out until it was only a little more bustling than usual. Rollo barely even noticed his friends until they were standing right next to them.

And, immediately, he had to cough violently to try and cover up a laugh. “What in the holy seas are you _wearing_?”

Callie started giggling as well, a little muffled behind the mask of the sneaky beanie she had on now. “That’s what I said!”

“Shut up, both of you,” Marie groaned, balancing the custom E-liter 4k with one arm as she adjusted the deca tackle visor helmet on her head. It looked like it would just about stay on during a match, but it was quite a few sizes too big for her. “It covers my hair. I’m trying to _not_ blow our cover.”

“I really hope you don’t, or you’re gonna totally ruin our reputation looking like _that_ ,” Callie snickered. She swung her black-and-white roller over one shoulder. “ _Whoa_!” She would have been sent over backwards if Rollo hadn’t reached out to catch it in time. The lobby had precautions in place to prevent weapons from using ink, but there was nothing to stop anyone getting hurt if a dynamo fell on them.

“It’s a dynamo, Cal, two hands,” he tutted, waiting for her to regain her balance before he let go. He'd be impressed she could even lift it if he hadn’t tested her strength in an arm wrestle before, and lost. “And who knows, maybe it’d start a fresh new trend.” He reached out to pat the helmet on Marie’s head; she swatted his hand away with a half-seen glare as that caused it to turn and she had to twist it back around so she could actually see out of the visor. Jake giggled quietly, ducking behind his brother when that earned him a glare too.

“It feels weird to be on the same team in a splatfest,” Callie commented, possibly to distract her sulky cousin, as she placed the borrowed kensa dynamo roller back on the ground and stretched the hem of her splatfest tee to get a better look at the art of a shoe on it. “Socks versus shoes, huh? Good thing you guys already picked a team ‘cus I’d have trouble choosing between them!”

“You’re actually invested in this boring theme?” Rollo raised an eyebrow at her. “The supposed otherworldly powers need to get more creative, if they even exist in the first place and this isn’t just a ploy.”

“Always the optimist.” Marie rolled her eyes from under the visor. She lifted her weapon off the ground a little, testing its weight again, and grimaced when it was more than she hoped for. “I can’t say you’re entirely wrong, though. Whenever we didn’t get a theme from on high, the managers would just pull one outta their ass for us. Cal—uh, Agent 1 can’t even drive and had to lead Team Car.”

“I only failed the test three times! That doesn’t mean I’ll _never_ pass.” Callie huffed. Her gaze passed over the slowly emptying lobby. “Can we go join a match already?”

“Okay, okay.” Rollo grinned, thoroughly entertained by their bickering. It felt like things were _normal_ again. He waved a hand in a beckoning motion as he led his to-be team towards one of the interactive screens. “Are you guys registered?”

“Not on the new system.” Marie shook her head and had to hurriedly grab her helmet before it could greatly displace itself again. “It shouldn’t take long. We just have to think of names to use so we don’t get recognised. People might get suspicious if we use agent numbers.”

“Hmm…” Callie looked thoughtful as she hiked her heavy weapon back over her shoulder. “I got it! You be Callie and I’ll be Marie.”

Marie quickly glanced around to check there was nobody within earshot and gave her a barely-visible deadpan glare. “Callie—”

“Nope! I’m _Marie_ now.”

“ _Whoever_ you are, that won’t work if we’re both in the same room anyway.”

“… Oh. Right.” Callie gave a sheepish giggle from behind her mask.

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take long to register them on the system; it took a while longer for them to come up with good aliases to hide their true identity, and Callie got fed up of trying to think of something and decided to ask Jake for the first thing he could think of instead.

“Uh… Karley and… Marin?” Jake responded with a helpless shrug, a wry smile on his face as he knew they were similar names he’d just pulled from the top of his head.

“Y’know what? I’ll take it. That’s probably stupid enough to work,” Marie said with a quiet huff of laughter as she typed her new screen name into the system. “Better than everything our dear friend _Karley_ has suggested so far.”

“Death Hawk is a _great_ name for a sniper!” Callie lightly punched her arm. “It’s not my fault you were too wimpy to use it. It’s _edgy_ , it fits you.”

“I’m _what_?”

Now that was done, the four of them headed further into the lobby to collect ink tanks and wait for one of the stages to become free. It wasn’t a long wait, and Jake found himself repeatedly checking his grip on the jet squelcher he held, making sure it wasn’t upsetting his recently-regrown hand. This was the first time he’d used a weapon since losing his arm, so hopefully he wouldn’t do _too_ badly. He had his brother on his team, and Rollo was a very high rank, so… maybe he would balance their team out.

Soon the wait was over, and they were granted access to the teleportation pad which would take them to the spawn point for their first match. The ink-filled machine used the tanks on their backs to turn all their ink to a chestnut colour, contrasting the pale blue of the other team.

“Whoa…” Jake gazed around in awe at the festival-lit stage; he’d never been to Blackbelly Skatepark at night before, and it looked amazing with the spotlights casting shadows over the ramps. Far above, a holographic screen in the sky showed a countdown to the start of the match, as well as a list of the names on the players on each team.

“You can put _symbols_ in your screen names now!?” Callie gaped upon noticing the music notes around Jake’s display. “Holy _shrimp_ , as soon as we get back to the lobby I’m doing that.”

“What does the ‘GD’ stand for?” Marie asked, referring to Rollo’s title, _GD_ _ _Rollo_ , but the squid in question didn’t seem to be listening, too focused on watching the opposite team as he sized them up.

“Geode,” Jake answered for him. “He’s gotta show everyone that he’s _totally_ _cool_ and in a league team.” His voice was laden with sarcasm, but even so, he did still have a smidge of pride for his brother. He was so _cool_. Jake hoped he could also be in a great league team someday.

Their first match burst into action with Callie immediately mashing the _Booyah!_ button on her ink tank the second they were allowed out of the spawn point, springing out of the podium alongside Rollo as both swung their rollers to paint lines of ink on the ground. _Acid_ _Hues_ blasted from the speakers, building the splatfest hype as the watching jellyfish danced and cheered for their chosen teams. Marie rolled her eyes at her cousin’s overuse of the communication feature and sunk into the trail of ink Rollo was making towards the podium in the centre, her swimming slowed even more than usual by the heavy weapon she was carrying.

Jake, not keen on fighting anyone just yet, stayed back to ink the hilly base and build up his weapon’s special. He set the tenta missiles off as soon as he could, and managed to target three of the opposite team shortly before the map picked up an _Ouch!_ in the distance as Callie got taken out by a dualie user. She popped back up in the spawn a few seconds later, squinting into the distance while she waited for her weapon to return. Jake’s radar beeped with the notification of splatting an opponent, and she cheered. “Ha ha! Avenged!” She grinned at him before turning into squid form and superjumping to one of the beakons Marie had set down near the centre.

He smiled back and continued to ink his way along the side path. Someone with a blaster was inking the area around the bumper at the far end; okay, he had much longer range than them, maybe he could take them ou—

They exploded into a large splat of ink. Marie had very good aim.

Well! That made his journey to the middle a lot easier. Jake climbed up a wall onto the perch where he could get a good view of the area and easily ink more turf, just in time to see Marie activate her special – and clearly didn’t expect something to appear in her hands, as its weight nearly pulled her off the tower. “Uhhhh—what is—this is _not_ an echolocator!”

Rollo popped out of the ink to splat the poor dualie player – they weren’t even a minute into the match, that guy couldn’t catch a break – and called up to her. “It’s a bubble blower; wave it!”

Marie shot him a confused glance, but did as he said, swinging the odd device and causing a giant bubble to form in the air in front of her. “Oh! That’s… weird.”

The rest of their match played out well, with Marie using her accuracy and long range to hold the centre of the map; for someone who’d been so reluctant to do this at first, she was _amazing_ at using a charger. Rollo kept venturing right up to the other team’s base until Jake eventually superjumped to him to drag him away, because this was a turf war not a ranked match and their friends’ low levels was probably causing them to get matched up against inexperienced battlers and _don’t be mean to them, Rollo, splatfest is supposed to be fun!_ He caught one of the young inklings on the other team throw him an appreciative glance; they held a splattershot jr and were donned in the gear given to new squids, and looked a little terrified of facing such a strong player.

The music changed with the last minute of battle, and when he retreated back to the middle of the map, Jake noticed Callie shake Marie’s shoulder as she tried to encourage her to sing along to _Now or Never_ with her. Marie gave her such a harsh nudge that she almost fell off the central pillar. “No singing! They’ll hear you.”

They won the match by an impressive margin, and once they were back in the lobby, the results popped up for them on one of the screens. Jake was at the top of the list for inking the most turf, followed by Rollo and Marie who both had double digits in their splat counts. Callie didn’t seem bothered by her score, eagerly seeking out the way to change her display name so she could add some music notes to it.

Their battles continued as the night went on. Callie, eventually getting used to the slowness caused by the weight of her weapon, managed to build up a special and seemed absolutely _elated_ when she experienced the booyah bomb. Of course, she light-heartedly chided her cousin for not booyahing back – and the next time Callie activated her special, Jake stole a glance at Marie to see her roll her eyes and press the button on her tank. It was hard to tell with that garish helmet blocking his view, but he was pretty sure she was smiling. Perhaps Marie was enjoying herself after all.

Rollo didn’t seem to be doing quite as well as usual, and even though Jake knew it was because his gear was partially different for splatfest, he couldn’t help but laugh at his brother when he forgot there was no ninja squid slowing him down and accidentally swam off the edge of a platform. Jake was still giggling when Rollo superjumped back to him, and Rollo promptly shoved him into one of Arowana Mall’s fountains. When Callie noticed the little ghostly squid being sent back to spawn and called him out for it, Rollo shrugged and innocently said “he slipped” with the hit of a smirk on his face.

As the matches went by, Jake got more into the rhythm of using his old beloved weapon again. He was a little rusty, as to be expected, but he managed to hold his own in a few encounters with the enemy once they started getting matched up against stronger teams. There were a few familiar faces around; Harper was a sock lover, it seemed, and showing no mercy to her opposing shoe fans. She managed to dodge her way around Rollo, splat him, avoid a snipe and take out Marie as well. She only hesitated briefly to say hi to Jake, because it had been ‘ _aaaaaaaaages!!’_ since she last saw him, before he was the next on her hit list. He respawned and was fully ready to exact revenge until he noticed her and Callie having a squid party in a corner of the map. Another time, maybe; Harper’s bloodlust had been thwarted for now.

“If Harper had recognised you, we’d all be screwed,” Jake said jokingly as they emerged from the spawn point in their next match, on the stage Marina had helped put together with lots of sliding platforms. “She can get kinda… _emotional_ about celebrities.”

“Thank goodness the disguises worked,” Marie scoffed, and it was difficult to tell if she was being serious or not. “I wouldn’t want to deal with that mess.”

They were drowned out by Callie, who had lost interest in their conversation as soon as she spotted the opposing team. “Look! Look, _look_! Marie—uh, Marin, _look_!” She grabbed her cousin’s arm and shook it, pointing towards the far spawn. “That inkling has _black hair_!”

Marie had to grab her helmet and twist it back into position so she could see out after Callie’s enthusiasm sent it spinning, and squinted through the visor into the distance. “They sure do. Good for them?”

Jake’s eyesight wasn’t quite as good even with his glasses, but he could just about see the heavy splatling deco and the dark vitiligo-patched skin which told him they were up against Mercedes. Honestly, that scared him a little, because he knew she was an X rank player. He didn’t even need to look to her side to see that she was playing splatfest matches with her close friend, because the quiet gasp from Rollo when he saw them told him all he needed to know.

“Ooh, looks like _Chance_ is in our match!” Jake said in a sing-song voice, sneering at his brother.

Rollo huffed. “Shut up.”

“Who’s Chance?” Callie glanced between them with genuine curiosity.

“Doesn’t matter!” Rollo responded a little _too_ quickly and waved his free hand dismissively. Marie raised an eyebrow at him.

“He most certainly _does_ matter!” Jake tutted, pretending to act hurt in the bucket-wielding inkling’s place. “Rollo has a _crush_ on him.”

“Don’t—just don’t listen to him, he is… tired and delusional,” Rollo backpedalled, pushing down on Jake’s shoulder as if trying to send him back into the ink of their spawn point.

The damage was done, though, because Callie’s eyes lit up, both with glee and mischief. “Oooh!” The look reflected back to her from Rollo was more akin to horror. “Aww, that’s so sweet!”

“Wow, Agent 4, I didn’t know that was your type.” Marie coughed, trying and failing to keep the laugh out of her voice.

“Look, don’t—he’s really sweet, okay?” Rollo was gradually losing his cool demeanour and becoming more flustered, and it was _hilarious_. “I mean—anyway – hah, none of you know what you’re talking about. I don’t have a _crush_ on anyone.”

“Denial,” Marie shot back with a smirk.

“Don’t _you_ start too!”

Behind his back, Callie and Jake exchanged an evil glance.

Callie burst from the spawn as soon as the horn blared, making a beeline for the other team, and Jake followed in the trail of her weapon, eager to find out what might transpire from this. He heard Rollo groan as they sped away, and Marie laugh at his expense before she inked a long line of turf to actually contribute properly to their match.

When Jake saw the familiar squids approaching them, he hung back, already seeing what was about to happen. Callie hopped from her long dynamo swing of ink, and didn’t even get a chance to say a word before Mercedes gunned her down with her splatling. Jake snickered and went to avenge her – and got splatted by the last few pellets from the burst of fire. Mercedes really knew how to use her weapon.

The respawn punisher ability on her shirt put them both out of commission for a few seconds longer than usual, and Jake reformed at the spawn point to Callie sulking. “That was so _mean_!”

“I don’t think you’ll get through to Mercedes that way,” Jake told her with a grin. “She’s pretty serious in matches, and that probably includes splatfest.”

“Then we gotta do this the hard way!” Callie flung a sprinkler at a patch of ground they’d ignored earlier. “We show off our strength!”

“Yeah, good luck with that. She’s Rank X.” Jake snorted. He glanced up as another ghostly squid splashed down into the spawn behind them, and a moment later Marie popped up, regarding the both of them with a ‘why are you standing around here?’ look.

“Splatling?” Callie asked.

“No. The _bucket_ _guy_ got me. Four’s avoiding him, and he snuck up on me.” She rolled her eyes and waved a hand at them as her weapon reappeared. “Go on, scram. There’s some beakons up.”

“Yes, boss!” Callie saluted, promptly superjumping away.

The rest of the match seemed to play out a lot more fast-paced than the others, up against at least two inklings from rank X. Jake spent most of his time trying to ink as much turf as possible and stay out of Mercedes’ range, which was only very slightly less than his. Marie had the weapon advantage and only managed to splat her once, and the rest of the time she had to keep an eye out for Chance, who knew she was a threat. Jake barely even saw his brother for the whole match, and when he finally spotted him, Rollo was getting rid of a sploosh-o-matic who was trying to sneak into their base.

The match ended with Callie flinging a booyah bomb over to the opposing team’s turf, and they managed to win with a small percentage because of that. When they were back in the lobby afterwards, she high-fived Jake for their top positions on the team rankings.

“Wow, Four, looks like you were slacking a little,” Marie teased, looking at his measly 400p of ink coverage and four splats at the bottom of the list.

“Yeah, well—” He didn’t get a chance to reply before Callie was tugging at his arm.

“Come on! They haven’t left for a new match yet, let’s go talk to them!” She pointed across the room to where their last opponents were waiting, looking at their results.

“But—okay, fine.” Rollo tutted and let her drag him away.

Jake hesitated, unsure if he should follow them. Did he want to watch his brother act like a total goof in front of Chance, or did he want to save himself the second-hand embarrassment?

“Callie’s found her crush for the week, I see,” Marie joked quietly so that none of the others around would overhear her except for Jake. She carefully propped her E-Litre against the wall and ran through a couple of wrist exercises to recover from their last match. “How you holding up, kid?”

“Alright, I guess.” He took a deep breath, finding that made his chest sting a little. “Kinda tired. You’re really good with that weapon, though! You got, like, so many splats against the really good players!” She hadn’t hit double digits that time, but nine was still _a_ _lot_.

“Oh, trust me, most of them were the others on their team. I think I stopped one of them from painting a wall.” Marie smirked. “Thanks anyway. You did pretty good yourself, for someone who hasn’t touched a weapon in months.”

That was a vague compliment, but a compliment nonetheless. Jake couldn’t help but smile. “Wow, you’re being nice to me and I didn’t have to risk my own life for it?”

“Amazing, right? I must be going soft. Next time you want a compliment you have to blow yourself up again.” She rolled her eyes. “Go on, go catch up to the others. Just let me know if we’re going into another match, I’ll be here.”

“You’re not joining us?”

“Nah. I’m only a people person when contractually obliged.” She waved him away with one hand, pulling the visor of her helmet up just high enough that she was able to clearly look at the screen of her phone.

“Alright… we’ll be back soon,” Jake promise as he went to look for where Callie and his brother had disappeared to.

They were easy to spot, a multi-coloured gathering on the far side of the room that Jake had to dodge around a few passing cephalopods to get to. He couldn’t hear the conversation yet, but Callie was giggling at something one of them had said.

“But yeah, man, I really don’t see many others like us around in Inkopolis,” Mercedes was saying, one elbow resting on her decorated splatling which was propped up next to her. She pushed the pilot goggles slightly further up on her black side swept hair, tipped with a light blue for her splatfest team instead of the usual orange. “Apparently nobody else does either. So many times! Every other day, I get someone come up to me and ask ‘hey, are you one of the _Squid_ _Sisters_!?’ and it’s like, buddy, you blind or somethin’? I can’t even tell if they’re being serious anymore.” She shook her head in exasperation. “I bet you get that a lot too, huh?”

Callie gave a nervous laugh, her eyes betraying a small look of panic. “Sometimes. It, ah—it gets old real fast, huh?”

“ _Definitely_. Cod, I could just—” Her gaze diverted to Jake as she noticed him approaching. “Oh, R, that’s your little brother, right? Name’s slipped me.”

“Jake,” Chance offered for her, giving him a small wave. “Hey! I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Hey,” Jake waved back, hoping he wouldn’t bring up their last encounter. He didn’t know Mercedes super well, but he was willing to bet she might try and pry into what had happened if he did.

“There he is.” Rollo tousled his hair, which was already a little ruffled from all the matches. “How you doing, bro? Up for more splatfest, or worn out yet?”

“I think I can handle one more,” Jake shrugged, placing one end of his jet squelcher on the ground and wiping a smidge of dirt off its frame.

“Looking out for your little bro, I see. What a sweet guy,” Mercedes smiled, shooting a meaningful look at Chance. He returned her gaze with an uncharacteristically sharp glare, as if he knew she was _implying_ something and wanted her to stop. Had she caught on that Rollo had a crush on him or, potentially more likely given Chance’s reaction, was it actually _mutual_? Lucky Rollo, if that was the case. Too bad he was too much of a wuss to do anything about it.

“We should see if we can get in some more matches while Arowana Mall’s still in rotation,” Chance said hastily, nudging his friend’s arm. “That’s your favourite stage, right Merce?”

“Sure, whatever.” She shrugged, picking up her splatling. She cast a thoughtful look at the other three. “Your sniper’s real good for someone below rank level. They new around here?”

“Oh! Uh, not really. She just has a lot of practice and doesn’t do matches, like, ever. Not since the lobby moved here, anyway.” Callie waved a hand, trying to cover up their alibi. “We’re real busy with work and stuff, don’t have time for turf, y’know?”

“Aw, that’s too bad. We’ve been trying to put together a league team – we got a new roomie recently, he’s pretty good too, but, long story. Still trying to find that fourth player, though, but I guess I’ve already got that backline spot.” She held up her weapon for emphasis.

“Well…” Rollo began, and exchanged a quick glance with Jake and Callie, as if he expected them to know where he was going with this. “I _do_ know another team-less player who’s pretty good—she’s super new to Inkopolis, but she’s talented. Splattershot main, I think, but from what I’ve heard she can use just about any weapon you throw at her. I’ll see if I can introduce you, if you want?”

_He’s talking about Eight,_ Jake realised.

“Oh, sweet.” Mercedes nodded at him. “That’d be great, thanks. Just, like – shoot me a message through ‘Lila or something, alright? We gotta go back into matchup to find some more teammates.” Her hands full, she let Chance do the waving as they left. “See ya later, shoesers.”

“Bye, _sockers_!” Callie called back, dragging a laugh out of Mercedes at the terrible pun. Callie’s eyes lit up. _Looks like Marie was right._

Jake didn’t miss the attempting-to-be-cool grin Rollo gave Chance, or the slight hint of colour on the paler inkling’s face as he noticed. “I think he _likes_ you,” Jake said aloud, and Rollo cuffed him in the back of the head.

“You’re seeing things,” he huffed. “One more match?” He looked around for Marie, who was leaning against the wall on the far side of the room and looking at her phone, but glanced up every now and then, offering a half-hearted wave when she saw them looking in her direction.

“One more match.” Jake nodded, picking up his weapon and standing as tall as he could. They might not get the chance to do this again, and he was going to enjoy spending this last game with his friends.

 

* * *

 

It had been a while since Rollo saw his little brother look so _content_ as they walked home from the square. There was more colour to his face than usual and a skip in his step despite how exhausted he must have been from all the exercise. Their final match had gone well for them, a tough fight that eventually ended in a win for them, and they’d wished their farewells to Callie and Marie with a promise that they would all meet up again sometime in the near future.

“You guys should come visit our place sometime,” Callie had offered while on their way to return their borrowed weapons and gear to Sheldon.

“I’m sure it’s a lot better than the dump we live in,” Rollo joked.

“Oh, trust me,” Marie laughed breathlessly, tired after their battles. “Your mess was _nothing_ compared to Callie’s room.”

“Hey!”

As soon as they got home, Rollo ditched his roller case in his room and claimed the couch before Jake could, deciding that even though he was tired he still wanted to make progress in this video game since that had been his _original_ plan for the evening. He’d only booted up the console when Jake called from his room, sounding irritated. Rollo went to investigate to find him stuck half-out of the binder, glaring at him with the look that said he needed help but really wasn’t happy about it.

Rollo couldn’t help a snort of laughter but helped him anyway, making sure to avert his eyes as much as possible and leave the room as soon as his assistance was no longer needed. He was half way through a level when Jake finally emerged from his room, wearing pyjamas even though it was still pretty early by his standards. The sofa shook as he jumped over the arm to sit on it, grabbing a cushion to hold in his arms.

“Early night? It’s only eight,” Rollo pointed out, not taking his eyes away from the screen.

“Nah. I just didn’t want to change more than once. Can I play?”

“Nope.”

“ _Why_!?”

“Don’t want you messing up my progress.” Rollo lightly nudged him with one arm, receiving a much more forceful shove back out of spite. “Anyway, you’re tired. You can make your own save file when I beat the game.”

“ _Fine_ ,” Jake huffed, settling down to watch him play instead. At least this wasn’t a horror game, so he was much less likely to complain about it.

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the level, as Rollo guided the character across platforms and to the goal at the end. A congratulatory theme played out when the results screen popped up. As much as Rollo loved video games, it still felt a lot more rewarding seeing his successful results in the lobby from the matches he’d played.

“Things are gonna be okay now, right?”

The sudden question after so much silence from Jake caught Rollo off guard, and he glanced at him in surprise for a moment. Jake looked exhausted, and the stark white colour of the medical sleeve on his right arm was a lot more obvious when he was wearing a short-sleeve pyjama shirt.

After how happy he’d seemed earlier, Rollo couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed – it wasn’t as if one splatfest could heal him entirely – but the optimism was still there. There was little to no threat from the octarians anymore, they couldn’t control Rollo, and within the next few weeks Jake’s arm would be completely recovered. “Yeah. Things are gonna be okay.”

 

* * *

 

The first thing Marie did when she got home was collapse on the couch; she hadn’t moved since and didn’t really have any plan to. Going into splatfest had been more tiring than she’d initially expected, especially lugging such a heavy weapon around, and she had the feeling her arms were going to ache into the next day from it. She _had_ enjoyed playing turf war, though; it was something she hadn’t done in a long while, been able to play a simple game where she could use a charger and there were no lives on the line. It had been a little therapeutic, even, and she felt like some kind of weight had been taken off her, if only temporary.

Of course, Callie had energy for days, and seemed to be feeling nostalgic, because she rummaged through her room for a few minutes – _yes, Callie, that place_ is _a mess_ – before she returned with one of their old splatfest CDs, putting it in the player and skipping through to the instrumental of _Ink_ _Me_ _Up_.

“Come on, Marie!” she cheered, skipping over to the side of the couch and looking down at her cousin expectantly.

“You’re expecting me to _sing_?” Marie gave a disbelieving huff. “How in the hell do you still have the energy for this?”

“It’s _splatfest_!” Callie insisted, as if that was some kind of energy source. Perhaps it was, for her. Laughing happily, her mood boosted by the atmosphere of the whole evening, she reached over to grab Marie’s arms in an effort to make her do a half-hearted version of the moves to the dance.

“No-o-o,” Marie whined pitifully at being made into a puppet, which of course only made Callie giggle _more_.

Then she stopped, suddenly. Marie had given up fighting against her within seconds, and when her slack arms were released suddenly she almost smacked herself in the face. Forcing her tired eyes open properly, she caught the end of Callie glancing away before the upside-down squid vanished from her field of vision. “Callie?”

The sound of footsteps paused briefly. “Huh? Oh, it’s nothing, I’ll go put dinner on.” She continued to the kitchen; they hadn’t expected to be out so late today, and it was fortunate they hadn’t eaten before going to splatfest, because rushing around in battle on a full stomach never had good results.

Marie still frowned at her sudden change in attitude, though. She ran a hand over her face in an effort to wake herself up more, and as her fingers briefly touched her right temple, she realised. Callie’s messing must have pushed her fringe out of the way and made the scar visible. It wasn’t _bad_ , no more than a slight discolouration of skin by now, but… _noticeable_ , especially to someone who had seen her without it for nineteen years.

She tried to think of something to say, but knew anything along the lines of ‘there’s nothing to worry about anymore’ would be hypocritical of her. Marie still got scared if Callie didn’t pick up a call or message back within a few minutes, and their most recent run-in with the octarians had only amplified her anxiety. It extended to Agent 4 now too, and she kept finding herself with the urge to message him just to make sure he was still _there_ to respond.

“I’ll help,” was the best thing she could come up with, going against every fibre of her being which wanted to remain as a limp sack of potatoes on the couch as she pushed herself up.

Callie turned the volume on the CD player down a little as she approached. “You don’t have to, if you’re tired.”

“Eh.” Marie shrugged and opened one of the cupboards, which was pretty bare. “It’s fine. You’re doing groceries for the next month, remember?”

“Oh. Right.” Callie chuckled half-heartedly as she pulled out a pan. “I was hoping you’d have so much fun you’d forget I said that.”

Marie tutted and shook her head good-naturedly. “I’ll cut it down to a week. I’m generous.”

“Of course you are.” Callie rolled her eyes. “Fine. You _did_ have fun though, right?”

“Yeah! I just haven’t done that much physical activity in a while, I’m beat.” Marie gave a tired huff of a laugh. Despite her complaining, splatfest _had_ put her in a good mood. Before their final match, she’d been feeling a little bold, and had considered messaging Agent 3 for the first time since she’d linked her to that chat room. Not bold enough to do anything more than _consider_ it, though, and she knew telling this to Callie would be a death wish. “The good kind of exhausted, though.”

“Just like when we used to lead it,” Callie hummed with a wistful look in her eyes.

Marie gave a half-hearted smile. “Missing the old days, huh?”

“I guess. I dunno.” Callie shuffled her feet. “Things didn’t end up super great between us after that last splatfest, but… there was no _danger_ , y’know?”

“Maybe…” There _had_ been, but Agent 3 had dealt with it so easily then and there hadn’t been any threat to either of them. Things had gone much worse this time. “It’s over now.”

“Yeah.” Callie busied herself by filling the pan with water, swishing it around for no reason other than to watch it, as if she wanted to distract herself from whatever she was thinking about. “Nothing to worry about anymore.” She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than Marie.

This mess had shaken them both. Marie busied herself by searching through the cupboard, repeatedly observing the whole three things in there as she tried to think what the best thing to say would be. “Y’know, if you still want,” she settled on eventually, “while we’re waiting for stuff to cook? One song. _City of Colour_. Just like the old days, right?”

Callie blinked at her in surprise, a smile beginning to spread on her face again. That was more like her. “You sure you’re not too tired?”

“I’ll live.” Marie grinned. “If you want to take over making dinner after, though, you might be the best cousin ever.”

“And take your title? I could _never_ ,” Callie beamed, drawing a laugh out of Marie as she went to go change out of her kimono. “Alright!”

It had been a while, but countless performances made the dance muscle memory and the lyrics second nature. Marie grieved for her poor aching arms but didn’t let that damper her performance, even if their show was just for their empty apartment. When the last few notes had played out, and the CD continued onto a different song, the two of them collapsed onto the sofa, even Callie’s abundance of energy used up.

“We should do that more, that was _fun_!” Callie threw her arms into the air, letting them fall against the back of the sofa a moment later.

“Yeah. Maybe not after an hour of turf war next time, though.” Marie laughed, out of breath as she sunk deeper into the cushions.

The kitchen timer beeped loudly, fortunately with enough volume to be heard over the music. Nowhere near as tired as Marie was, apparently, Callie sprung up from her seat. “Right! Dinner. I got it.”

“Good.” Honestly, Marie didn’t feel like she had the energy to lift a fork, but hopefully hunger could draw that out of her within the time it took to dish up. Life had been so stressful recently, and even if two years ago hadn’t been a whole lot different in that regard, the nostalgia seemed to alleviate it a little. They were safe in their apartment, Callie was here, Agent 4 was back with them, Jake had almost made a full recovery… things were starting to look up. “We’re gonna be okay, I think.”

“You _think_ ,” Callie echoed. She hesitated on her journey to the kitchen, looked back, and smiled. “I _know_ we’re gonna be okay.”

Marie laughed. She’d allow herself to fully believe Callie’s optimism, just this once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Which team won the splatfest? Vote now on your phones.
> 
> And thus we reach the end of Squid Story. It's been a wild ride and this last chapter was probably unnecessary since the previous one was ALSO technically an epilogue, but..... they deserve to have fun. Also, my capabilities of thinking up splatfest themes are very limited. I was trying to decide between a theme meaningful to the story and one that was really bland, but I couldn't think of one which wouldn't be an eerie coincidence and decided to go with Socks vs Shoes because it was so dull it could be a real one if there hadn't already been a splat2 splatfest with a team socks in it........
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who read this story and special thanks to the people who commented!!! Posting each new chapter became the highlights of my week to see what people's reactions would be, haha... I'm glad you enjoyed it because I sure enjoyed writing it!!
> 
> Will there be more squids?? Who knows, but there's a bunch of characters who didn't get a lot of time to shine in this story since it mostly focused on a handful of them, so we might see more of them in future ??????


End file.
